The remarkable effect of chewing a gum while working
The remarkable effect of chewing a gum while working
By: Arlene Gentallan
Have you ever felt bored and sleepy? So much that you wanted to pop a gum in your mouth.
Sounds like a crazy idea?
Not quite. Did you know that chewing a gum awakens the senses? There's actually a long list of literature that sheds light in what could have been a minty and tasty past time--chewing a gum.
A research by Andrew P. Allen and Andrew P. Smith revealed that chewing a gum can benefit employees at work by increasing the amount of task they can complete while diminishing errors.
126 university staffs were divided into two groups (one group chewed gum while other did not.) Self-reported questionnaire was used to find out the impact of chewing gum on performance and well-being in a single working day.
Those assigned to chew gum were given a full packet containing 10 pieces of gum which they have to chew any time during the course of their working day. They were encouraged to chew a gum when they feel stress.
It turn out that employees who chewed gum at work had increased alertness and productivity, while having reduced stress and fatigue.
What's in a gum that improves alertness and performance? Is it the glucose content of gum that makes the magic? Hirano et al. uses a flavorless and odorless gum in their research which demonstrated that the act of chewing is responsible for this effect.
Instead of chewing on calories or nothing, why not chew a gum?
The next time you feel like doing nothing at work, why not chew a gum...because you know there's a good reason behind it!
Resources:
Allen, A. & Smith, A. (2015). Chewing Gum: Cognitive Performance, Mood, Well-Being, and Associated Physiology, BioMed Research International, Volume 2015, Article ID 654806, 16 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/654806.
Hirano, Y., Obata, T., Takahashi, H., et al. (2013). Effects of chewing oncognitive processing speed, Brain and Cognition, vol. 81, no. 3, pp. 376–381.
By: Arlene Gentallan
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| The remarkable effect of chewing a gum while working |
Have you ever felt bored and sleepy? So much that you wanted to pop a gum in your mouth.
Sounds like a crazy idea?
Not quite. Did you know that chewing a gum awakens the senses? There's actually a long list of literature that sheds light in what could have been a minty and tasty past time--chewing a gum.
A research by Andrew P. Allen and Andrew P. Smith revealed that chewing a gum can benefit employees at work by increasing the amount of task they can complete while diminishing errors.
126 university staffs were divided into two groups (one group chewed gum while other did not.) Self-reported questionnaire was used to find out the impact of chewing gum on performance and well-being in a single working day.
Those assigned to chew gum were given a full packet containing 10 pieces of gum which they have to chew any time during the course of their working day. They were encouraged to chew a gum when they feel stress.
It turn out that employees who chewed gum at work had increased alertness and productivity, while having reduced stress and fatigue.
What's in a gum that improves alertness and performance? Is it the glucose content of gum that makes the magic? Hirano et al. uses a flavorless and odorless gum in their research which demonstrated that the act of chewing is responsible for this effect.
Instead of chewing on calories or nothing, why not chew a gum?
The next time you feel like doing nothing at work, why not chew a gum...because you know there's a good reason behind it!
Resources:
Allen, A. & Smith, A. (2015). Chewing Gum: Cognitive Performance, Mood, Well-Being, and Associated Physiology, BioMed Research International, Volume 2015, Article ID 654806, 16 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/654806.
Hirano, Y., Obata, T., Takahashi, H., et al. (2013). Effects of chewing oncognitive processing speed, Brain and Cognition, vol. 81, no. 3, pp. 376–381.
