Sitting to go to work, sitting to spend a working day, sitting to return home … The longer we sit, the more stress we feel, scientists say.
The harm of a sedentary lifestyle for physical health is not new for a long time. Now it became known that it also affects the psychological state.
Researchers from a group led by Michelle Kilpatrick of the University of Tasmania conducted an experiment that calculated the relationship between sitting time and feeling depressed*. For this, 3367 participants were involved, who assessed their psychological state (symptoms of anxiety, depression) over the past 4 weeks. They also rated their physical activity.
After processing the results, it became obvious that there is a connection between a sedentary lifestyle and emotional state. Those respondents who spent more than 6 hours a day sitting were more anxious and stressed than those who sat at work for no more than 3 hours. There was also a difference in the results of women and men – women were more prone to deterioration in psychological well-being due to daily sitting.
It is noteworthy that the subjects who, after a six-hour working day spent sitting, led an active lifestyle and visited the gym, showed the same results as the rest of the experiment participants. This means that it is precisely a long period spent in immobility that brings harm to psychological health, and not the absence of physical activity **.
* M. Kilpatrick, K. Sanderson, L. Blizzard, B. Teale, A. Venn «Reducing sitting time may benefit mental health», Mental Health and Physical Activity, June 2013.
** «More Bad News About Sitting: It May Harm Workers’ Mental Health», Association for Psychological Science, Published November 18, 2014.
