Differenza tra due date in MySQL

SELECT TIMEDIFF('2007-12-31 10:02:00','2007-12-30 12:01:01');
-- result: 22:00:59, the difference in HH:MM:SS format


SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND,'2007-12-30 12:01:01','2007-12-31 10:02:00'); 
-- result: 79259  the difference in seconds

Quindi puoi usare TIMESTAMPDIFF per il tuo scopo.