We all have been there, that point in time during class where you just cannot possibly sit any longer. You start to fidget in your seat to try and find the most comfortable position only to find yourself with a numb tailbone or legs and feet that have fallen asleep. My high school classes were 90 minutes long, and the chairs were god awful, not comfortable at all. Many times teachers would try to break up class by giving us a minute or two to stand up and stretch or an activity that required we get up and move around in attempts to keep our attention for the full period. The teachers that did not do this then had to deal with the never-ending bathroom trips from students. No student could have had to go that often, instead they used it as a reason to get up and walk around. With this in mind the question has been posed in learning and working environments if it is, in fact, better to do work standing up versus sitting down.
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Think about it, when people are trying to think what is a common thing many tend to do? They pace. You don’t see people trying to come up with ideas laying down quite often. Or, how about when you need to clear your head so you get up from what you’re working on and go for a walk or a run. So, is there a relationship between physical activity and being more productive or being able to think better? Sage Journals produced a study on this with school aged children. Their goal was to determine if standing desks helped children in the classroom in regards to “performance and behavior”. They also evaluated the effect the desks had on “physical activity” (Get to the article by clicking here). The conclusion of the study is as follows, “standing desks may provide an attractive alternative to traditional seated desks as they provide the potential for a less sedentary student body while maintaining and possibly improving academic performance” (Get the full conclusion here). However, even this study concludes that more studies need to be done in order to determine if standing increases children’s productivity.
The above study was an example of an experiment. They put some kids at standing desks and recorded the data regarding behavior, productivity, height, weight, and BMI, then compared that to a baseline from before the kids started at the standing desks.
A second study from The FASEB Journal measured the same thing, but in adults at the workplace. The overall goal was the same, to find if standing helps productivity versus sitting. In short the study replaced workers’, ranging from ages 33 to 66 years old, regular desks with new height adjustable desks, thus increasing their standing time throughout the work day. The conclusion that they found in this study was that “these changes were accompanied by decreased tiredness and increased perceptions of amount and quality of work completed and overall work performance” (Find the page here).
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These two studies both have enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis that standing versus sitting does nothing. In fact, in both studies it shows that productivity, among other things, increased when standing desks were incorporated. USA Today’s article online provides the first hand account from Jeff Gothelf saying that he too saw his productivity increase from standing versus sitting. His theory why, as he states, is because “When you’re standing, you are not relaxing or hanging out watching videos or doing other stuff. You’re very goal oriented. There are no distractions. You’re in and out” (see quote here).
I tried to do a study like this for my psychology class senior year of high school. We came up with little brain puzzles and had a random assortment of students, both guys and girls, take them standing and then sitting. We timed how long it took them to complete each one. In the end our findings were inconclusive as the results did not sway in a particular direction. Then again we also had to take into consideration that some people, regardless of their body position, did not understand the puzzles.
I agree that more studies should be done on this to further find out if there is a direct link between standing versus sitting and productivity in both school and the workplace. However, judging by the above findings there is, for sure, a correlation between the two.
This is very interesting! When I was young, I used to love standing up in the classroom, and I would try not to sit. It became a habit that I still did when I was in high school. This says that there is no difference between sitting and standing from a life expectancy standpoint. It says that staying in any stationary position for a long period of time can be bad for your health. I personally feel like I would like to switch from standing to sitting and vice versa from time to time. I find that when I’m doing homework, I change the position I am sitting many times throughout the process.
What a coincidence! I actually saw a news report tonight on NBC Nightly News that a elementary school out of Southern California has allowed children to stand up in the classroom if they want instead of forcing them to sit down. The result? The children actually paid more attention to what the teacher had to stay instead of sitting in one place and when they do decide to sit down, there is something called a fidgeting bar underneath the desk to allow a child to rock their legs back and forth without causing distraction.
I like the quote that says you are more goal oriented when you are standing. I never thought of it that way but it makes a lot of sense. When I’m sitting in class for a long time or doing homework on the couch, i causally go about it. But when I’m standing i feel lil i have more control and can get more work done.
Perfect topic to write a blog on, especially the environment we’re in. I can completely relate to every point that was mentioned in this article. It only takes maybe a half hour for my feet to start feeling asleep and more butt to go numb. I feel like teachers should make more of an effort to let their students get up and stretch at the very least. This could possibly cause health problems in the near future. Constant back aches can result from always being hunched over in a desk five days a week. I don’t understand why teachers wouldn’t follow through with this procedure more often because it would help to keep their students more engaged in the lesson at hand. This article gives more great insight into your analysis of this topic, and I especially liked the title of this.