Wandering Minds and Aging Cells

Abstract

Many ancient contemplative traditions believe presence of mind promotes greater longevity, a belief that is hard to test. Scientific evidence suggests that mind wandering predicts unhappiness, whereas presence in the moment predicts well-being. It is important to test whether a tendency toward mind wandering is associated with biological measures of longevity beyond self-reported measures of well-being. Telomere length has recently emerged as a proxy measure of biological aging and correlate of severe stress. We assessed the association between telomere length and tendency to be present versus tendency to mind wander in 239 healthy women. Those who reported high mind wandering had shorter telomeres, consistently across immune cell types (granulocytes, lymphocytes), than did those who reported low mind wandering, even after adjusting for stress. Telomere length varies widely between adults, and these findings suggest that presence of mind may explain some of these differences. A present attentional state may promote a healthy biochemical milieu and, in turn, cell longevity.