[HN Gopher] 'Active' sitting is better for brain health: review ...
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'Active' sitting is better for brain health: review of studies
Author : mikhael
Score : 45 points
Date : 2026-01-22 19:03 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencealert.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencealert.com)
| nbosse wrote:
| I'm confused by this... It seems to me like the relevant part is
| "playing computer games is good" not "the type of sitting you do
| matters". Playing computer games while standing might be even
| better
| eatsyourtacos wrote:
| It's probably more "active" sitting. If you are a gamer
| (especially computer gamer), you are generally not just sitting
| back "relaxing". Your body is more engaged and you are
| constantly moving your body in some way.
|
| Sitting and watching tv you can literally be completely still
| for long periods of time.
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| Depends on the game. I'd say I have two modes of sitting when
| programming, one is passive and my muscles ache. Another is
| active, when I try to use belly muscles (abs?) to keep my
| posture etc but... When I fall deeply into thinking I will
| eventually release muscles and feel worse later.
|
| I wonder if there could be an application that would
| encourage active sitting
| layman51 wrote:
| This is what I was thinking about too. I thought that
| "Active" sitting was going to be something about making
| sure you're not slouching, but rather adjusting yourself
| every so often to make sure you're sitting up straight
| instead of slouching off the chair.
| yunwal wrote:
| They mention reading as an example of active sitting despite
| the fact that it requires no more motion than changing the
| channel (or whatever the modern day equivalent is).
| iammjm wrote:
| Consider StarCraft: Brood War, a legendary real-time strategy
| game. To be played well, it requires between 200-400 actions
| per minute (APM), with some players going even beyond 500
| APM. Some games last for more than an hour. Players use both
| the mouse and the keyboard. There's always more to do than
| you can realistically do. You are always putting out fires,
| managing your economy, producing units, securing income,
| carrying multiple attacks at once, fighting tactical battles,
| and executing strategic goals. Yeah I'd call that a pretty
| active sitting :)
| helph67 wrote:
| "A professor at the Institute for Work and Health found that
| people who stand throughout the day at their jobs have a 2.2
| times higher risk of developing heart disease than those people
| who sit during the day."
| https://www.ergolink.com.au/blog/standing-vs-sitting-at-a-de...
| goda90 wrote:
| I can think of a lot of confounding factors for that. Are
| they just looking at standing desks, or also at the numerous
| blue collar and service industry jobs that demand long hours
| of standing at machines and registers? If it's just the
| former, then there's the question of what kind of people
| choose standing desks over sitting desks. Is it people
| worried about their health but don't take the time to
| exercise outside of work and think standing will be enough?
| If the latter applies, then there's facts about the stresses
| and complications of being less financially secure, such as
| less access to healthcare, longer working hours, poorer
| diets.
| kilington wrote:
| Certainly but correlations not working make it unlikely
| that sitting is a dominant factor in current health
| problems. Looking at the details described it makes sense
| that sitting is a form of idleness and idleness is possible
| in a standing job. Therefore idleness could more reasonably
| be the dominant factor with other correlations then
| contributing more for idle standers than idle sitters, etc.
| gamerdonkey wrote:
| I was a little miffed that this blog didn't include a link to
| that particular study, especially with how vague the citation
| is, so I went and found the original publication[0].
|
| Of note, they have a "Setting the record straight"
| addendum[1] that includes a couple important quotes:
|
| "Misconception #1: Office workers should now be confused
| about whether they should sit or stand, and about whether
| sit/stand stations are a good idea. They shouldn't be, says
| Smith. The study's main finding was about workers who are
| required to stand for long periods (i.e. five hours or more)
| throughout their work shift, without opportunities to sit.
| Extending this to any worker who stands (e.g. an office
| worker using a sit-stand desk) is not correct. This is
| because office workers who stand at these types of
| workstations likely have the option to sit down when they get
| tired or when they feel pain in their legs and back."
|
| and
|
| "Misconception #2: We no longer have to worry about the
| negative health effects of prolonged sitting, thanks to this
| study. Not so fast, says Smith. There was nothing in this
| study to refute the research on the health consequences of a
| sedentary lifestyle. Much of that research is about sitting
| too much throughout the day--at work, while commuting and at
| home. This study only focused on prolonged sitting and
| prolonged standing at work.
|
| "And even within the study, another finding about prolonged
| sitting at work got lost in the coverage. Yes, prolonged
| standing occupations were linked with twice the risk of heart
| disease as prolonged sitting jobs. However, prolonged sitting
| jobs were still linked, among men, with a 40 per cent higher
| risk of heart disease compared to jobs that involve a mix of
| standing, sitting and walking."
|
| [0]: https://www.iwh.on.ca/newsletters/at-work/90/standing-
| too-lo...
|
| [1]: https://www.iwh.on.ca/news/study-on-prolonged-standing-
| and-h...
| nikkwong wrote:
| Original source:
|
| https://news.uq.edu.au/2026-01-not-all-sitting-same-when-it-...
|
| > "...Passive activities such as watching television have been
| linked to worse memory and cognitive skills, while 'active
| sitting' like playing cards or reading correlate with better
| brain health, researchers have found."
|
| ...Do these researchers even read this to themselves aloud before
| hitting publish? It's confounding that they would find "sitting"
| to be the active ingredient pushing the outcome differential.
| Obviously, if you remove the bodily posture from the action that
| the user is engaging in, you would observe the same outcome the
| researchers did--meaning sitting was not operative here (..duh).
|
| Breaking news at 11: the brain works best when it's actually
| used.
| rippeltippel wrote:
| Breaking news! Using the brain is better for brain health than
| not using it.
|
| Next: Playing chess on one leg is better for brain health than
| sitting.
| goda90 wrote:
| "Passively watching TV" feels like a common target for brain
| health/strength/etc discussions. I'm curious if there's been any
| studies into the differences that engagement with television
| programs can have on the brain. There's been a whole breadth of
| television programming over the decades. I think it would be
| wrong to treat it all as equal in regards to how it impacts your
| brain.
| dexwiz wrote:
| I don't even think it's the same across viewers. When my
| partner and I watch some shows, we make prediction for the plot
| and evaluations of characters. We even have a bet book where we
| record and score predictions for some shows. It's makes
| watching much more engaging, especially if the creators hide
| details and foreshadowing in the background. But you don't even
| need high quality content to do this, just tighten the
| restrictions. Law and Order and Hallmark movies only get 30
| seconds of content before we make predictions.
|
| It's much more stimulating than just passive consumption. If I
| don't do this I feel like brain turns to mush after a few hours
| of TV.
| ofalkaed wrote:
| It comes down to your level of engagement, if you are
| interested in and knowledgeable about any of the arts which
| comprise TV/Film (acting, directing, set dressing, etc) you are
| very likely to more actively engage with TV than the average
| person does with literature.
| ozim wrote:
| I think there was some study where it was somewhat confirmed
| that watching people exercise had some beneficial effect
| without doing any exercise yourself.
| daedrdev wrote:
| Maybe in the future people will focus on solving problems some
| AGI can solve better to keep themselves in shape, like how
| exercise is a modern invention
| mhog_hn wrote:
| Still in awe that AGI is happening
| jesse_dot_id wrote:
| It's not happening.
| dizzard wrote:
| This article has nothing to do with sitting.
| tasuki wrote:
| I read it sitting. Does that count?
| pedalpete wrote:
| That this is the state of "science" is very disappointing, and
| whenever I see the domain sciencealert, am pretty much trained
| that it is going to be nonsense.
|
| Sadly, other science publications seem to be following a not
| dissimilar trend.
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