Are you sitting comfortably? Then your anxiety levels may be mounting.
Scientists have found that sitting for long periods on the settee is bad for mental health as well as being terrible for body.
The tests on adults and adolescents found couch potatoes who spend their waking hours playing computer games, surfing the Internet and watching TV are more likely to suffer debilitating anxiety attacks.
Anxiety is a normal reaction to certain situations such as exams, having a baby, starting a new job, or being diagnosed with an illness. But sufferers of anxiety feel like this most of the time, worrying excessively and interfering with their daily life.
It also can result in physical symptoms including a pounding heartbeat, difficulty in breathing, tense muscles and headaches.
The research adds to the catalogue of woes that are increasingly being linked to flopping out on the sofa. Obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis have all been linked to sitting down.
Megan Teychenne, lead researcher and lecturer at the Australian Deakin University Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research (C-PAN) said, “Anecdotally, we are seeing an increase in anxiety symptoms in our modern society, which seems to parallel the increase in sedentary behavior. Thus, we were interested to see whether these two factors were in fact linked”.
Since research has shown positive associations between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms, this was
another foundation for further investigating the link between sedentary behavior and anxiety symptoms.
The researchers analysed nine studies that examined links between sedentary behaviour and anxiety. These ranged from television viewing, computer use to total sitting time, which included sitting while watching television, sitting while on transport and work-related sitting. Two of the studies included children and adolescents while the remaining seven included adults.
It was found in five of the nine studies that an increase in sedentary behavior was associated with an increased risk of anxiety.
In four of the studies, total sitting time was associated with increased risk of anxiety. The evidence about screen time (TV and computer use) was less strong but one study did find that 36 percent of secondary school students that had more than two hours of screen time were more like to experience anxiety compared to those who had less than two hours. The link could be due to disturbances in sleep, social withdrawal and the negative effects on health.
Miss Teychenne added, “It is important that we understand the behavioral factors that may be linked to anxiety in order to be able to develop evidence-based strategies in preventing or managing this illness.
Our research showed that evidence is available to suggest a positive association between sitting time and anxiety symptoms. However, the direction of this relationship still needs to be determined through longitudinal and interventional studies”.
Scientists have found that sitting for long periods on the settee is bad for mental health as well as being terrible for body.
The tests on adults and adolescents found couch potatoes who spend their waking hours playing computer games, surfing the Internet and watching TV are more likely to suffer debilitating anxiety attacks.
Anxiety is a normal reaction to certain situations such as exams, having a baby, starting a new job, or being diagnosed with an illness. But sufferers of anxiety feel like this most of the time, worrying excessively and interfering with their daily life.
It also can result in physical symptoms including a pounding heartbeat, difficulty in breathing, tense muscles and headaches.
The research adds to the catalogue of woes that are increasingly being linked to flopping out on the sofa. Obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis have all been linked to sitting down.
Megan Teychenne, lead researcher and lecturer at the Australian Deakin University Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research (C-PAN) said, “Anecdotally, we are seeing an increase in anxiety symptoms in our modern society, which seems to parallel the increase in sedentary behavior. Thus, we were interested to see whether these two factors were in fact linked”.
Since research has shown positive associations between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms, this was
another foundation for further investigating the link between sedentary behavior and anxiety symptoms.
The researchers analysed nine studies that examined links between sedentary behaviour and anxiety. These ranged from television viewing, computer use to total sitting time, which included sitting while watching television, sitting while on transport and work-related sitting. Two of the studies included children and adolescents while the remaining seven included adults.
It was found in five of the nine studies that an increase in sedentary behavior was associated with an increased risk of anxiety.
In four of the studies, total sitting time was associated with increased risk of anxiety. The evidence about screen time (TV and computer use) was less strong but one study did find that 36 percent of secondary school students that had more than two hours of screen time were more like to experience anxiety compared to those who had less than two hours. The link could be due to disturbances in sleep, social withdrawal and the negative effects on health.
Miss Teychenne added, “It is important that we understand the behavioral factors that may be linked to anxiety in order to be able to develop evidence-based strategies in preventing or managing this illness.
Our research showed that evidence is available to suggest a positive association between sitting time and anxiety symptoms. However, the direction of this relationship still needs to be determined through longitudinal and interventional studies”.
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