Daily fret is 30 minutes longer

THE credit crunch has added half an hour to the amount of time we spend worrying every day.

The average Briton now frets for two hours and 15 minutes daily, according to a poll. Researchers found the cost of living and energy prices overtook personal health as the biggest concerns this year.

Also in the top 10 worries in a survey of 1,500 people were financial outgoings and income, debt, recession, unemployment, crime, pensions and relationships.

Women will spend an average of seven years and 10 days stressing, while men will worry for five years, eight months and 23 days.

A fifth of us have been drowning our sorrows in drink, double the figure from last year, and one in six is too preoccupied to have sex, according to the survey by ReallyWorried.com