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Why it’s good to fidget

Are you a fidgeter? Do you nibble your nails, play with your hair or tap your feet? Well, despite what your teacher used to tell you, it might not be such a bad habit.

In Fidget on Four, Dr Kat Arney examines why some of us repeatedly click pens, doodle and knee jiggle. More than a distraction, it turns out fidgeting has potential benefits for both body and mind.

What is a β€œfidget”?

“In my laboratory we define fidgets as any kind of movement that’s not directly relevant to the task at hand,” says New York neuroscientist Anne Churchland. Within that, there are different categories of fidget.

Although we have this idea that we need to be calm and still in order to think, that isn’t the case for everyone. It may be that for many people we need to engage in movements in order to get our thinking brain up and running.

One type tends to be repetitive and rhythmic, like clicking a pen or rocking a leg.

This is different from the second type of fidget where a person feels uncomfortable and might need to shuffle around in their chair.

A third type of fidget is done by an individual like a musician or a sportsperson as they undertake a behaviour that they know really well, says Anne.

For instance, a cricketer might have a series of elaborate fidgets that they do when they go out to bat that, in their mind, are part of the action of batting.

Why do you fidget?

On the surface, fidgeting doesn’t make a lot of sense. It uses up energy, so there’s a metabolic cost. And there’s also a social cost – it often annoys the people around us!

Surely then, these actions must serve some purpose. Anne Churchland believes the function might be closely linked to brain activity like decision making.

Fidgeting helps you think

“The difficult cognitive tasks that we engage in with our advanced human brains are all building off of machinery that originally evolved to move the body around,” says Anne.

“So maybe for some kinds of cognitive behaviours, the way that we kick that neural machinery into gear is by making movements.”

In other words, although we have this idea that we need to be calm and still in order to think, that isn’t the case for everyone.

“It may be that for many subjects, what it means for them to think is to move,” says Anne. “They need to engage in those movements in order to get their thinking brain up and running.”

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Fidgeting improves your focus

Clinical psychologist Roland Rotz specialises in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, and he’s also the co-author of Fidget to Focus. He says fidgeting is our body’s natural way of helping us concentrate.

Fidgeting helps us to self-regulate our weight by burning calories, helps to keep us fitter, and could also be reducing stress.

“At times when we’re under-focused, or having a hard time concentrating or paying attention, this is the body’s natural way of stimulating itself,” says Roland. It’s a behaviour that shows up more in sufferers of ADHD, but it’s an unconscious strategy deployed by almost everyone.

Fidgeting could also reduce health risks

The energy cost of fidgeting might actually be beneficial too. Janet Cade, a professor of nutritional epidemiology at the University of Leeds, ran a 12-year study of women, looking at how much time they spent sitting still, and how much time they spent doing other activities. Subjects were also asked questions about their fidgeting habits.

Over that 12-year period they found that the women who were particularly sedentary, and who also didn’t fidget very much, had an increased risk of death over that time. However, the women who were fidgeting a lot actually had a reduced risk of death. The fidgeters were 30% less likely to have died during the study compared to those who sat still for up to 5 hours at a time.

Why? Fidgeting helps us to self-regulate our weight by burning calories, helps to keep us fitter, and could also be reducing stress, says Janet. So, should we see fidgeting as part of a healthy lifestyle? In essence, yes. If you’re not very active you can actually compensate by fidgeting.

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Fidgeting can help manage chronic pain and calm you down

Research has shown that some forms of fidgeting, like knitting, can do wonderful things for our mental well-being. Betsan Corkhill, the director of an organisation called , is evangelical about the therapeutic properties of crafts – and knitting in particular. She runs a knitting group for people with long-term pain as it has been found to help individuals manage chronic discomfort.

And a 2013 survey, with responses from over 3,500 knitters across 31 countries, further reinforced its magical qualities. “Our most significant finding was that the more frequently they knit the happier and calmer they feel,” says Betsan.

Feeling stressed? It could be time to pick up the needles and yarn.

Fidgeting can help dementia sufferers

Dave Bell is a specialist mental health nurse working for . For many of his patients fidgeting is commonplace, whether that’s walking around or fiddling with the hem of a dress. Often it’s because a dementia sufferer is physically uncomfortable or in pain, for some it might be environmental factors making them psychologically uncomfortable, and for some it’s the brain damage itself that’s causing the repetitive behaviour.

But, although it can look distressing, this fidgeting could actually be a way of self-soothing. “I think for the person who’s experiencing it, when they’re doing things with their hands or walking around, it’s very possibly reducing some of their stress,” says Dave.

have been creating knitted muffs with beads, buttons, bells and ribbons attached to provide people in care homes with a fidgeting tool and has designed a wooden fidget widget with the to help reduce anxiety in people with dementia. Dave says the effects are amazing. “I’ve seen the change in demeanour that happens to someone when they’ve got this,” says the mental health nurse.

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To fidget or not to fidget?

Rather than always being a symptom of a lack of concentration that needs to be suppressed and silenced, fidgeting actually helps many of us relax, focus, and tackle tasks more effectively. So should we all be fiddling, twisting, twiddling and jostling to improve our concentration in the classroom or to get through a tedious task?

Fidgeting actually helps many of us relax, focus, and tackle tasks more effectively.

Perhaps, provided it’s done in the right way. It’s a fine balancing act says Roland Rotz.

Sometimes a doodle might become more interesting than the lecture or lesson itself and that’s when we know that the fidget isn’t really working as a focusing tool.

“The better doodle might be just shading in,” says the psychologist. “Just subtle, rapid, rhythmic motor movement.”

So the type of fidget we do matters. Also, one person’s focus fidget can soon become an infuriating distraction for the rest of us. So, go ahead – tap, rap your fingers and twiddle – but remember, fidget responsibly!

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