Have you ever found yourself working for hours sitting in an office chair without getting up to take a break? This is not uncommon, in fact, most people do not know or forget to take breaks when working long hours sitting in one position. Whether you work full or part time from home or in a traditional work environment, it is important to take breaks. Taking breaks while working long hours is essential and crucial to your health.
Employers may need to think about the environment in which their work takes place in order to develop a suitable plan that allows time for breaks. For jobs that are full-time, two shorter breaks are usually adequate. People who work behind a computer all day must take a break approximately every hour and be able to get up and move. This allows them to sit all day staring at the screen. People who work highly repetitive jobs should be offered shorter and more frequent breaks to avoid boredom, which can result in decreased productivity, decreased competition, and fewer errors. There are many reasons why regular breaks are important; here are some.
- Circulation is affected by sitting for a long time: When you sit in static postures where you are not moving, circulation can be impeded. When blood flow to an active muscle is impaired, the oxygen supply decreases, which can impair muscle function over time. The feeling of fatigue is often related to circulation and blood supply.
- Working on the computer distorts time consciousnessWhen working long hours at the computer, most people don’t take breaks often enough, nor do they realize how long it has been since they started working. An easy way to eliminate this problem is to make sure people take regular breaks by using time reminders.
- Burnout: People who work continuously face total burnout and what good is a burned-out employee? Physical exhaustion can lead to problems like chronic headaches, fatigue, inability to concentrate, and trouble sleeping at night. Even if all it takes is 15 minutes during an 8-hour workday, you can use that time to refresh and feel more energized for the rest of the workday.
- Productivity: Many studies have revealed that workers who take breaks are much more productive during the day than those who do not. After a break, your performance levels increase dramatically so that you can tackle tasks again with renewed vigor and finish them with precision. More mistakes are also made when you don’t refresh your mind and body.
- Heart risks: After researchers in Finland conducted a study on a group of nearly 800 workers over a 28-year period, they found that subjects who couldn’t find time to recover from their workweek were more likely to eventually die from cardiovascular disease . If people are unable to relax periodically, plaque can build up in their arteries, contributing to possible heart attacks or strokes.
- Stress: Focusing on a tedious task for too long can lead to physical and mental stress. Stress, as most of you know, can have serious consequences for our health. Common consequences of stress include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, poor fitness, low resistance to viruses, and serious illness. If something you are working on becomes too stressful, it is best to take a break and resume work once you are calm and collected.
- Repetitive stress injuriesEspecially for those who sit at a desk all day staring at a computer, it is easy to develop repetitive stress injuries such as eyestrain from staring at a computer screen for too long. Carpal tunnel is also another injury that can develop from spending too much time writing and not writing in the proper position. Sitting in an office chair for a long time usually leads to wanting to fidget and shift posture, most of the time to an incorrect posture. If you don’t sit properly and have adequate lumbar support, back and neck pain is sure to develop.
As you begin your new routine of taking breaks, start small with 5 minute breaks and build up to about a week or two. Taking breaks at work cannot be considered lazy, especially when taking short and meaningful breaks. There is nothing wrong with trying, but there is wrong with not trying.