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Tuesday, November 30, 2004

We're more stressed than fighter pilots

Do you get commuter amnesia?

Don't know about commuting but Blogger's been stressing me out lately very, very slow to load posts. Anyway, there's been another one of those studies released today which shows how commuting is really stressful

"Stress expert Dr David Lewis compared the heart rate and blood pressure of 125 commuters with those of pilots and police officers in training exercises.

"The study, part-funded by technology firm Hewlett Packard, found the stress levels of commuters were higher in extreme circumstances.

"Workers' stress is exacerbated by their inability to control their situation."

I'm very lucky with my morning commute of not having to get into work that early so I do miss the bulk of the crowds going in, although rush hour at night gets later and later so I face the scrum like everyone else. I do try to turn off when stuck in tunnels or facing boards saying 10 minutes till your next train, but you can always see people getting fairly frustrated.

"Dr Lewis, who measured the stress levels of the commuters for five years, has identified a syndrome he calls "commuter amnesia", where people forget large parts of their journey because of stress.

"The survey suggests an average commute is between 45-60 minutes," he said.

"That is at least a working day a week that you are losing completely out of your life.

"Switching off the mind, turning people into zombies for 90 minutes, seems to me a quite appalling waste of talent."

Too right. To read more of this story check out the
BBC's site.


; Posted by annie mole Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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