There’s nothing worse than having an inbox filled with ‘urgent’ emails at the end of the working day; in fact, it’s one of the main reasons so many of us stay in the office after-hours – or, at the very least, log into our emails from home to tackle them after dinner.

However experts have now revealed that there is a very good reason to shut down your computers at the end of the day, as a new study has confirmed that answering after-work emails is bad for your health.

Using data collected from 297 working adults, Liuba Belkin and her researchers at Colorado State University, Virginia Tech, and Lehigh University discovered that there is a link between after-hours emails and emotional exhaustion, which leads to “burnout” and diminished work-life balance, which is essential for our individual health and wellbeing.

And it’s not just receiving the emails which are stressing us out, either; it’s the anticipation of receiving them, too.

That’s right; just knowing that a work-related email could be on its way “contributes to emotional exhaustion”.

They said: “Email is notoriously known to be the impediment of the recovery process. Its accessibility contributes to experience of work overload since it allows employees to engage in work as if they never left the workspace, and at the same time, inhibits their ability to psychologically detach from work-related issues via continuous connectivity.”

New study reveals that answering emails after work is bad for your health