These days, in the era of a mass pandemic and constant toilet paper shortages, everyone is becoming all too aware of certain dangerous everyday habits  that can lead to infection, from shaking hands, to putting your hands on your face, to… well, pretty much anything to do with your hands, it sure sounds like. The current times aside, though, there are a lot of seemingly ordinary little things you do in an average day that can actually be shockingly dangerous on both a physical and psychological level, even when you look beyond germs. From biting your fingernails, to scrolling through too much social media right before you go to bed, to skipping breakfast, to even simply buying cheap sunglasses without properly vetting them, many of these habits will seem horrifyingly familiar to the common person. It’s never too late to change your ways, thankfully, so read these, learn, and don’t forget to SHARE the truth about these dangerous everyday habits with all your friends!

If you decide that a medical career is in your future, one of the first things you’ll learn is that you’ve probably been washing your hands wrong your whole life. Now, we won’t even go into those not-so-hygienic folks who don’t wash their hands at all (how many more reminders do you need?) but even the standard hand washer doesn’t do a thorough job, which leads to the widespread proliferation of colds, flus, and other viral menaces that rage through the wintertime. To do it right, you need to wash them for 20 seconds — sing the ABCs, if it helps — but you need to thoroughly scrub every finger, under the nails, and around the wrists, as well.

These days, everybody on Earth spends so many hours of the day staring down at their phone that it’s easy to forget that, in the long run, this a recent phenomenon. Whether you’re riding the train or waiting in line, at least half the people there (if not more) will have their heads tilted forward. Now, social problems aside, doctors have warned that maintaining this posture for long periods of time is really screwing up your neck: in the long run, this could cause pain, spine issues, and worse. So yes, this is yet another reason to look at your phone a bit less.

Thanks to decades of advice from dentists (and the lasting memory of root canals, yikes) people have finally gotten it into their heads that it’s incredibly important to brush their teeth twice a day. Good for them. Not so good, though, is the fact that people still make excuses to skip flossing. Now, while flossing certainly feels less important than brushing while you’re doing it, the results of not doing it are the same — and arguably even worse. Cavities can form between your teeth just as easily as they form anywhere else. Floss, people!

You know a nail biter when you see one. Whether you see them cramming their fingers into their mouth, or you see the shredded evidence when you hold their hand, nail biters are everywhere. The reasons for this vary, from anxiety concerns to perfectionist tendencies, but what’s horribly consistent is the fact that biting your nails is horrendously bad for you: not only are you sticking entire colonies of germs into your mouth repeatedly, but in 2018, one man in the U.K. developed a nearly fatal infection from doing so.

The fact that most people plug in their phone at night, right when they go to bed, is understandable. It’s the time that you’re least likely to use the phone, and it allows you to start the day with a fresh charge. Aside from the fact that overcharging the phone is, well, bad for the phone, it’s also bad for you: while not frequent, this situation has been known to cause fires, particularly if you also leave the phone on the bed.

Western society is hopelessly addicted to sugar. That’s just the truth of it. However, just because your friends, family, and coworkers are all downing candy bars and sodas all the time, and they seem healthy, doesn’t mean that they are. Even seemingly non-sweet products are often obscenely loaded with added sugars, to the point where making excuses for a sugary snack once (or a few times) a day is seriously upping your chances for diabetes, and other health conditions.

Okay, so a quick disclaimer: staying up late isn’t necessarily bad. For instance, if your regular schedule has you, say, going to bed late, but still getting a full eight hours of shuteye, then there’s a decent chance you’re okay. However, far too many people stay up late in the hope of squeezing in a little extra productivity, heightening their risk of heart disease, high blood sugar, and other ailments. Generally, it’s better to just hit the sack once you get tired, instead of pushing it off.

Lots of people hate eating breakfast. Sometimes your stomach just isn’t feeling it, and sometimes you just don’t feel like you have the time to whip up something nutritious. Regardless of your personal feelings on the whole breakfast subject, though, you’ve probably been told how it’s the most important meal of the day — and sadly, that’s true. Waking up and eating triggers your metabolism right at the start of the day, meaning that you’re less likely to dump empty calories into your body later on, and thereby lowering your risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

More and more, people tend to finish their day off by simply staring at their phone screen. No matter whether you’re reading news articles, watching YouTube clips, or scrolling mindlessly through social media, this is a habit you’ve got to kick. Why? The blue light from the screen is keeping you awake at night, the same way that bright, sunny skies wake you up in the morning. If you simply have to stare at your screen at night, perhaps for work reasons, consider downloading one of the many “blue light filter” apps available for free.

You’d think that social media would be helping to bring people together. After all, that’s Mark Zuckerberg’s whole sales pitch, right? And in certain respects, social media does help unite people, particularly friends and family members who live far apart. However, it’s generally been proven by studies that spending too much time on social media is terrible for your psychological health, as it creates feeling of isolation, jealousy, and loneliness, which soon begin to impact your physical health, as well. Obviously, in times of pandemics and social distancing, social media serves an important function — but in normal, non-pandemic times, in-person interactions are almost always better.

Sometimes, you eat because you’re hungry. That makes sense. Other times, though, you’ll catch yourself eating a bag of chips, ice cream, or a bowl of cereal when you’re not hungry … and that doesn’t make sense at all. Why do you do it? Who knows, but experts agree it’s a habit you need to knock off. Whether it’s emotional eating or midnight snacks, this kind of binging raises your risk profile for conditions like high blood pressure, sleep apnea, kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, to name a few.

It might not seem like you’re killing yourself when you watch a lot of TV. However, studies have shown that watching TV for more than three hours on the daily actually doubles your risk of an early death, due to the fact that it’s a highly sedentary activity that is often connected to poor diet, lack of fitness, and poor sleep. Watching a little TV is okay, of course, but you should try to manage this time correctly.

By now, most people have been told the proper way to lift things: bend your knees, keep your back straight, don’t put all the weight on your spine. It takes a little longer to do it this way, though, which is probably why you have been doing it the wrong way most of the time, particularly for quick lifting jobs. The time you save upfront, sadly, is time that you’re losing in the long run, as you’ll be spending your later years maintaining excruciating back pains, a slouch, and so on. It adds up.

While it’s always tempting to just go outside on a nice day and not worry about the consequences of a blinding hot sun, you would truly do well to remember just how painful your last sunburn really was… particularly if you’re planning a beach day, barbeque, or what have you. And not because of sunburns, either: the cancer risks of not using some proper sunscreen are real, they’re dangerous, and they’re terrifying. Take heed, and perhaps save your life.

Okay, so to be clear, crossing your legs won’t kill you. Don’t panic. However, if you’re the sort of person who always sits with your legs crossed, everywhere you go, you might want to change up your habits a bit. Why? Because, for one, crossing your legs is found to elevate your blood pressure. Two, if you do it long enough and frequently enough, it could tilt your pelvis, warping your posture, and causing other problems down the line. So, crossing sometimes is okay, but not all the time.

You’ve heard the good old eight glasses a day nugget of wisdom, but you probably don’t listen to it. That raise the question: why are you still so intent on dehydrating yourself? By and large, the vast majority of people out there don’t fulfill their necessary water intake, meaning that they’re basically driving around like cars taking a road trip on a quarter tank of gasoline. Water is what your body needs. Water is what your body thirsts for. Give it what it wants! 

The nature of western society is such that a huge percentage of people work desk jobs, whether from home or at their office, meaning that there’s a whole lot of folks sitting down for at least 40 hours a week. Now, obviously, the human body isn’t made for that, but the situation worsens tremendously if you’re not sitting with the optimal posture. Invest in a decent office chair, with lower lumbar support, and a desk that’s the right height for you. You’ll be thankful about it later.

Everybody sleeps in their own way. Some people lay on their backs. Others prefer to curl up on their sides. Both of these positions have their plusses and minuses, but pretty much all the experts agree that the absolute worst way to sleep, for your health, is on your belly. For one, it’s not good for your breathing, and two, this position is doing long-term damage to your neck and spine. Changing your preferred sleep position is hard, admittedly, but worth the effort.

It’s easy to think of breaks as something that lazy people do, but in reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Even if you’re pressing up against a tight deadline, breaks are a psychological and physical need, that boost productivity and ensure your future wellbeing. If you’re looking at a screen too long, your eyes will be boosted by looking at other things for a while. If you’re sitting at a desk too long, your legs and back need to move around. You get the idea.

Okay, so it’s the 21st century. If you are still smoking cigarettes at this point, you know all about how horrendous it is for your lungs, your skin, your teeth, your heart, and just about every other part of your body — and hearing it again probably won’t change your mind. However, if you’re thinking that your e-cigarette is a healthy alternative, think again: new studies are increasingly showing that the chemicals used to create these e-liquids are also quite dangerous, and less understood.

While you might not want to spend the time washing off all your makeup after a great partying night, you should really make a point to do so, every single time, no matter what. Sleeping with your makeup on does real long-term damage to your skin, causing clogged pores that lead to increasingly bad acne, redness, sensitivity, and premature wrinkles. So, basically, while makeup removal might not always fit conveniently into your schedule, it is certainly worth your time.

Okay, sure, nobody wants to be the square who has little foam things in their ears at a fun concert. You should be that square, though, because every time you put your eardrums through that level of noise without proper protection, you are risking irreversible damage to your hearing. Unless you want to spend your later years unable to hear conversations, shouting at people to speak up, or hearing a constant ringing noise, please wear a set of earplugs.

There’s a reason that picking your nose carries a social stigma, and that’s because it’s really bad from you. Everyone is always focused on the germs in the nasal cavities getting out, sure, but what’s far worse is the bacteria that you’re sticking into them when you pick, which can lead to colds, infections, or worse. Perhaps the worst case scenario is death, which doesn’t happen often, but is still a scarily real possibility if the wrong bacteria gets up there. Don’t just pick in private: stop picking altogether.

Everyone hears all about how they’re supposed to be getting a full night’s sleep, but the truth is, very few people truly achieve this. Between work, school, parenting, social gatherings, and more, it’s very easy to chip away at your sleep schedule. And while you might think you feel okay, after doing this, your body says otherwise. Some of the side effects of chronic sleep loss include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure.

Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn’t spend a crazy amount of money on sunglasses, since you’ll probably lose or break them. That’s a fair point. On the other hand, though, you should stop buying the super cheap ones, too, as they probably don’t have authentic UV protection. Why does that matter? Because you’ll be staring into the sun with these cheapo shades, thinking you’re safe, when you might actually be the recipient of cataracts, macular degeneration, or even certain cancers. So, when you buy sunglasses, always check the label carefully.