Before we begin, the usual disclaimer that sitting is definitely not the new smoking and standing to work for long periods is just as bad as sitting. Having said that, a new study published in the Journal Psychological Science carried out by researchers at Ariel University and Tel Aviv University suggests that standing to work may improve cognitive performance as well as physical wellbeing. The study of 50 students carried out by Yaniv Mama, David Rosenbaum and Daniel Algom found that the mild stress associated with the effort of standing up improved the ability of participants to cope with simple mental tasks.

The results are predicated on the idea that we are all multitasking all the time, because our brains are engaged in the process of controlling and monitoring our posture. The mental processes involved are more complex when we are standing than while sitting, which means that our brains are under slightly more stress when we stand to work. The authors cite a number of other papers to suggest that a moderate amount of stress improves our ability to carry out certain tasks, an idea they tested against the performance of people standing to work.

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