If you jiggle your leg, click your pen, tap your foot, play drums with your fingers, or fidget in some other way, don’t stop doing it.
That’s probably the opposite of what you expected to hear, right?
Well, it’s true.
One study found that those who fidget throughout the day didn’t have the same increased mortality risk from long periods of sitting that other people did.
In fact, they even had less of a mortality risk than women who were more physically active otherwise.
Of course, this finding is important, since even people who make time to get the recommended amount of exercise and sleep enough every night tend to also spend most of the day sitting down, especially if they commute and work desk jobs.
Professor Janet Cade, co-author of the study from the school of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds observed that “while further research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health.”
It’s true, since people now always want kids and adults to stop fidgeting, either out of some annoyance or belief that it’s a symptom of ADHD.
But if the majority of us either work desk jobs or, if you’re a child, sit in classrooms all day, it may be time to lift that stigma for the sake of our own health.
If you don’t have time to get up every hour, or even if you make time for exercise at home, it may be worth it to indulge your fidgeting once in a while.
