Stress could be spotted by looking at your EYES

Simply looking into a person's eyes may indicate how stressed they are, research suggests.

Scientists discovered the size of our pupils change erratically when we are forced to multitask and faced with unexpected changes.

They hope this will lead to a tool that employers can use to monitor how their staff are coping, before they become overwhelmed.

Researchers based at the University of Missouri, Columbia, looked into how stress affects a person's state of mind.

They felt too much emphasis was placed on how a high workload impacts the body, such as by causing back problems. 

Lead author Dr Jung Hyup Kim said: 'If your vitals are bad, then something is wrong with your body and doctors will work to figure out what's wrong with you.

'What about your mental health? Many people multitask, but currently there is no measurement for someone's mental well-being. 

'However, we found that the size of a pupil could be the key to measuring someone's mental state while they multitask.'  

Thirty-six volunteers were tracked via motion capture and eye-tracking technology while they sat in a simulated oil and gas refinery plant control room. 

The participants had to respond to unexpected changes, such as alarms, while overseeing two monitors.  

Results showed during the simple tasks, the participants' eye movements were fairly predictable but they became more erratic as unexpected changes occurred.  

The researchers compared their findings against NASA data that assessed how the pupils of astronauts change in response to stress.

Combining the two data sets suggested the size of a person's pupils changes abnormally when stressed.

The researchers hope pupil dilation will one day be used to monitor how well staff cope in a stressful environment, such as hospitals, offices and factories.  

'It would be great if people could work perfectly every time,' Dr Kim said. 'But when you're tired, you often make a mistake. 

'So, if we can monitor a worker's mental well-being, then we can hopefully prevent future mistakes from happening.'

The researchers plan to repeat the experiment in people of different ages, as well as assessing how their heart beat, brain signals and muscle reactions change in response to stress. 

The study was published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.

It comes after a study released earlier this year by the Mental Health Foundation revealed that of its 4,619 participants, 74 per cent admitted to feeling so stressed they became overwhelmed and unable to cope.

Of those who felt stressed, 51 per cent went on to develop depression while 61 per cent reported feeling anxious. 

Recent evidence suggests increased stress at work is a key driver of anxiety. Data from the Office of National Statistics Labour Force Survey reveals that anxiety cases increased by 34 per cent from 444,000 in 2007/08 to 595,000 in 2017/18. 

As well as the devastating impact mental-health disorders have on the individual, they also affect businesses.

The ONS survey found a staggering 115,913,000 work days have been lost over the past decade due to stress and anxiety. Deloitte estimates this costs the economy £7.9billion a year.

And a Trades Union Congress survey of health and safety representatives from earlier this year found that nearly seven in ten cite stress as a problem in their workforce. 

Source: The Daily Mail

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