It's healthy To Spend Time With People You Love At Home

This the season to gather those you love and soak up the quality time together. And really, we should be doing this all year round -- even research shows that spending time with loved ones is good for health.

From decreasing loneliness to slashing stress levels, from helping with quitting smoking to making a difference in healthy eating habits, check out these eight reasons why it's healthy to spend time with people you love.

Parenting Lengthens Life.Being a parent -- especially being a mom -- is linked with living longer, according to a study of 21, 276 couples from Denmark.

The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, showed that women who gave birth to children were four times less likely to die early from cancer, accidents or circulatory disease. Fathers also had lower risks of early death from these causes.

Big social networks are good for your health. Having many strong social ties could help you live a longer, healthier life, according to a study from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers. So have a good Internet environment at home is very important.

Sisters decrease loneliness. Having a sister is good for your mental health, according to research from Brigham Young University. It's time to do some effots on girl's bedrooms. Specifically, researchers found that having a sister could help preteens to feel less lonely, self-conscious and afraid -- and more loved.

And researchers found that having a sister or a brother was linked with more inclination to do good deeds, according to the Journal of Family Psychology study.

Friends and family make a difference in your healthy habits. Your friends and family are highly influential when it comes to the kind of lifestyle you lead, according to a 2011 survey.

Blisstree.com reported that 36 percent of people say their nutrition is affected by influence from their friends and family. And 46 percent of people in the survey said that their loved ones make a difference in their overall healthy lifestyles.

Sisters spread happiness. Spending time with your sister could help you feel happier, according to a University of Ulster study. The study, which included 571 people between ages 17 and 25 , showed that people with sisters had greater family communication, BBC News reported.

"Emotional expression is fundamental to good psychological health and having sisters promotes this in families, " study researcher Tony Cassidy told BBC News.

Talking with Mom lowers stress.Spending some quality talk time with Mom could help to lower stress, according to a 2010 study conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

Health.com reported that talking on the phone with Mom seemed to decrease stress hormones and increase the feel-good chemical oxytocin among young girls, between ages 7 and 12.