The Benefits of Being Fidgety

This week’s article summary is Why Fidgeting is Good Medicine.

Last week I wrote about two teachers who made a tremendous impact on me as a student and as a person and who inspired me to become a teacher. 

While I don’t remember for sure, my guess is they allowed me to be 'my fidgety self' in class. 

I’m not so attention deficit or hyperactive that I need medication, but I know from ample experience as a kid and as an adult that I focus, concentrate, and learn best when my body can be physically active. When confined to sitting, I have to keep my legs moving up and down like a piston.

When I was a student in middle school, the most difficult 40 minutes of the week was Quaker meeting when we were expected to sit still, be quiet, and think 'deep thoughts.' 

As an adult, I don’t relish all-day educational conferences and workshops as all too often I am expected to sit listening for extended periods of time. Usually, I try to find a seat near the back of the room, so I can get up every twenty minutes or so and stand for a bit. 

When taking notes or even just listening to a speaker, I need to doodle (usually random geometric shapes) in order to concentrate. People around me might think I’m daydreaming and not listening when in fact the random doodling is a necessity of concentration. 

At night, I rarely get under bed covers and sheets because when asleep my legs move constantly, much to the aggravation of my wife, who also has to remind me at restaurants to stop tapping my fingers on the table or rocking my chair back and forth.

Over time I’ve learned to cope and to be inconspicuous with this need to be in perpetual motion, yet when I was a kid I’m sure my antics were often interpreted as being disrespectful.

The article below is the scientific proof why many of us are so fidgety and, specifically, how moving one’s feet when sitting has cognitive as well as physical benefits.

Joe

---------

Here’s some advice for teachers who tell fidgeting students to just sit still: let them tap their toes and jiggle their legs.

Why? Because fidgeting is good for their health.

Sitting is one of the scourges of modern life. The health consequences of muscular immobility are well documented. Studies show that uninterrupted sitting causes an abrupt and significant decline in blood flow to the legs. This causes vessel walls to pump out proteins that, over time, contribute to hardening and narrowing of the arteries. Blood pressure rises, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis.

The simplest solution is to get up and move around, increasing blood flow in the legs, but when standing up is not an option, fidgeting is a good substitute.

In a recent study, college students sat for three hours with one leg immobile and the other regularly fidgeting. They measured a striking difference in blood flow between the two legs: a precipitous decline in the immobile leg and an increase in the fidgeting leg, compared to the baseline. At the end of the three hours, when the researchers tested the ability of the subjects’ legs to respond to changes in blood pressure, the immobile legs no longer worked as well as they had during baseline testing, meaning that they were already not as healthy as they had been. The arteries in the fidgeting legs responded as well or better than before.

The muscular contractions associated with fidgeting are quite small, but they are sufficient to combat some of the unhealthy consequences of sitting.