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Driving For Two Hours A Day Lowers Your IQ, According To Study

Driving For Two Hours A Day Lowers Your IQ, According To Study

Uh oh.

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Bad news for those of you with a long drive into work, because a new study suggests that spending more than two hours a day driving reduces intelligence.

In the study, researchers investigated various sedentary behaviours to see how they affected IQ scores, and they found the scores dropped faster in middle-age participants who drove long distances as part of their day.


via GIPHY

The study looked at the lifestyles of over 500,000 British people aged 37 to 73 for five years to gather the data. Asking participants to take part in intelligence and memory tests.

Kishan Bakrania, a medical epidemiologist from the University of Leicester who carried out the study, told the Sunday Times: "Cognitive decline is measurable over five years because it can happen fast in middle-aged and older people.

"This is associated with lifestyle factors such as smoking and bad diet - and now with time spent driving. We know that regularly driving for more than two or three hours a day is bad for your heart.

"This research suggests it is bad for your brain too, perhaps because your mind is less active in those hours."

So as well as being totally boring, traffic jams are also making us stupider. Perfect. Credit: PA

He added: "Driving causes stress and fatigue, with studies showing the links between them and cognitive decline."

The results also showed that watching more than two hours of television a day can also have a detrimental effect on IQ.


via GIPHY

But if your commute is followed by being sat behind a computer once you get to work then your brain might get a bit of a boost.

Bakrania said: "Cognitive skills were boosted in people who used computers up to two to three hours a day.


via GIPHY

"When watching TV, your brain is less active but using a computer is stimulating," Bakrania added.

So, that's something, at least.

Featured Image Credit: Fox/The Simpsons

Topics: Driving

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