Work by Carter and colleagues indicates the value of designing opportunities for people to take periodic walking breaks into workplaces and other environments. For example, by providing headsets so that individuals can speak on the phone while walking and floor plans that streamline the process of walking and talking simultaneously.
The Carter-lead team reports that, “Decreased cerebrovascular blood flow and function are associated with lower cognitive functioning and increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases…This study explored the effect of uninterrupted sitting and breaking up sitting time on cerebrovascular blood flow and function of healthy desk workers…Prolonged uninterrupted sitting [tested length of 4 hours] in healthy desk workers reduces cerebral blood flow. However, this reduction in cerebral blood flow is offset when frequent short-duration walking breaks [2-minutes of light-intensity walking every 30 minutes] are incorporated into this sitting period.
For those who engage in long periods of sedentary behavior, chronically breaking up these sitting periods with frequent active break strategies may have important implications for cerebrovascular health; however, further research should explore this hypothesis.
- Carter, R. Draijer, S. Holder, L. Brown, D. Thijssen, and N. Hopkins. 2018. Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 125, no. 3, pp. 790-798, doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00310.2018
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.