Sitting too long promotes anxiety

The pandemic and the health restrictions put in place have drastically reduced mobility. Daily commutes have turned into bedroom-to-living-room commutes, and clicking Zoom links has erased time spent walking to meeting rooms. All these changes have led to an increase in sedentary behavior and the time spent sitting, which does not promote better mental health, as confirmed by a study published on 1^er october in the magazine Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Investigate a sudden change in habits

“Sitting is sneaky behaviorasks Jacob Meyer, the main author of the study. It’s something we do all the time without thinking about it.” With his team of researchers, he examined how physical activity and sedentary behaviors are linked to mental health. They also observed how changes in these behaviors influence the way people think, feel and view the world.

For this, the researchers conducted a survey of 3,000 participants in the United States. The latter provided information on how much time they spent doing activities, such as sitting, watching screens and exercising. They also compared these to their pre-pandemic habits. Using standard clinical scales, they reported changes in their mental well-being, eg depression, anxiety, feeling stressed, loneliness. “We know when people’s physical activity and screen time changes, it’s linked to their overall mental health, but we haven’t really seen big demographics like this in response to a sudden change. previously”, says Jacob Meyer.

Anxious patients sit more

Early data from the survey showed that participants who met health guidelines for physical activity of between 2.5 and 5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week before the pandemic reduced their physical activity by 32%, on average with sanitary measures. The same participants reported feeling more depressed, anxious, and lonely.

The researchers then studied whether the participants’ behaviors and mental health changed over time. “We found that, on average, people saw their mental health improve over the eight-week periodsays Jacob Meyer. People have adapted to life during the pandemic. But for people whose sitting time remained high, their depressive symptoms, on average, did not recover in the same way as everyone else’s..”

Sitting does not make you depressed

The researchers point out that their study does not confirm that sitting causes depression. “It is possible that people who are more depressed sit more or that people who sit more have become more depressedadds the main author. It certainly deserves further investigation. I think it’s really important to be aware of some of the subtle changes we’ve made during the pandemic and how they could be beneficial or detrimental as we look on the other side of pandemic life.”

The authors recommend taking breaks when people sit for long periods of time. “If you no longer walk down the hall for in-person meetings, you can still incorporate that break from sitting by taking a short walk before and after your Zoom call.”, suggests Jacob Meyer.