BOULDER - Look no further than Boulder, Colorado for people who say they are the happiest in the nation, according to a recent survey by National Geographic.
Boulder residents told surveyors they are happier on a scale of 1 to 10 than people responded in any place else in America. That comes from the Gallup Healthways Well Being Index, which asked 1.4 million Americans the question, "How Happy Are you?"
Many factors play into Boulder's happiness, including access to the outdoors, overall quality of life and a relative balance of high technology use and low-tech down time.
"Social networks and TV do bring us a little bit of happiness, but it peaks at about 45 minutes. If we're spending more than that watching TV, we're probably doing it at the expense of more authentic sort of happiness, like socializing, like volunteering, like doing our hobbies, like staying in shape," said National Geographic author and speaker Dan Buettner. Buettner's book "Thrive: Finding Happiness The Blue Zones Way" explores the keys to happiness.
He suggests the best way to keep your kids happy is to never allow TVs in the bedrooms as well as to keep it behind an entertainment center door or in an out-of-the-way place to prevent screen time overload and to keep TV as an intentional thing rather than reflexive activity. Smart phone overload can also detract from one's overall well-being aside from occasional, intellectual-driven usage to learn something or look up a fact.
Sleep is also another big factor in overall happiness. Americans sleep a little over six hours a night, while the happiest people in the country sleep a little more than eight hours a night. Folks who are just hitting the average are losing about a third of the happiness they could be experiencing with a little more than those who get more than eight hours.
Sexual activity plays a big role in the happiness of survey respondents. The grumpiest people, or least-happiest people in the country, rarely if ever have sexual relations. Meanwhile, the happiest respondents reported having sex multiple times a day.
Finally, music plays a big part in helping people stay happy. The happy zone, or time frame to keep people happiest, is with at least two or more hours of music per day.
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