Unhappiness may shorten your life more than smoking, scientists say.

Data from 12,000 Chinese adults revealed that having a poor mental state — feeling lonely, hopeless and having restless sleep, for example — can shave more than a year and a half off the average lifespan.

Scientists say their research shows that mental health is just as important as physical health.

The US-China team made the discovery while investigating a new AI ‘ageing clock’ trained on biological sex, blood markers, biometric data and biological age of the participants of a major population study.

The sophisticated clock worked backwards to estimate the specific contributions of different variables to ageing.

Lead author Dr Fedor Galkin said: ‘Ageing acceleration was detected in people with a history of stroke, liver and lung diseases, smokers, and most interestingly, people in a vulnerable mental state.

‘In fact, feeling hopeless, unhappy, and lonely was shown to increase one’s biological age more than smoking.’

Smoking cut lifespans by an estimated 1.25 years in comparison to 1.65 years — or one year and eight months — for these psychological factors.

The team linked other psychosocial variables, like being single or living in a rural area, to shorter lifespans. But their effect was much smaller.

Although the research itself is relatively novel, it chimes with previous work that linked strong relationships with friends and family to longevity.

Co-author Manuel Faria, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, California, said: ‘Mental and psychosocial states are some of the most robust predictors of health outcomes — and quality of life — yet they have largely been omitted from modern healthcare.’

Dr Galkin added: ‘The psychological component should not be ignored in aging studies due to its significant impact on biological age.

This component ‘should not be neglected either in research or in practical anti-ageing applications,’ he said.

As we age, our chance of developing illnesses like heart disease, Alzheimer’s and type two diabetes increases.

People who experience this process more intensely may be considered ‘accelerated’ agers.

But Galkin, who works for ageing clock company Deep Longevity, says this increased pace ‘may be detected before its disastrous consequences manifest’ by using these kinds of products.

‘Such digital models can also be used to derive anti-aging therapies on individual and population levels,’ he added.

Galkin, three other co-authors receive salaries from Deep Longevity.

Their research was published Tuesday in the journal Ageing.

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