Shake a Leg

Is the table shaking? Do you hear an aggravating tapping noise? Someone is shaking their leg, bouncing it up and down inaccessibly for no apparent reason. I’m sure everyone can familiarize. We’ve all done it—and we all know people who do it constantly. I did a research project to find out more about this peculiar human behavior. Is it caused by a nervous twitch in the leg? Do people do it when they are tense or in a hurry? Do they do it unconsciously? Are there certain factors that may affect this behavior? Is it more than just a bad habit?

The first step in my project was to observe and collect data. I watched the students in my class to see who was guilty of "the leg shake." I noted things such as gender, time of the class, difficulty of the class, etc. I questioned whether there would be a difference in the number of guys who were leg shakers and the number of girls who were leg shakers. My results are shown in the following chart.

(There was almost a 50:50 ratio!)

My Biology class had the most leg shakers total, but there were too many variables to be able to come to a solid conclusion. For instance, Biology is a very difficult subject and may cause tension in some students. Biology may be some students first class of the morning, and they may be trying to stay awake. Also, Kosters’ lunch opens right as Biology is ending, and many of the students may be eager to get done with class so they can go and eat a delicious meal. My computer class had the least amount of shakers. This may have been because there are only 12 people in the class. This may have been because the class is boring and almost everyone is asleep---there really was no way to tell.

However, I did find some information that may be related to my topic. There is a disorder known as Restless Legs Syndrome. This is a motor disorder in which people use movement to rid themselves of discomfort. Persons with this disorder often feel discomfort in their legs when they are lying or sitting, and feel that they must move them in order for them to feel better. Therefore, some of the students in my class may be shaking their legs because they feel discomfort and some of them may actually have Restless Legs Syndrome. However, that may be stretching my information and is highly unlikely.

In conclusion, I really had too little information and too many biases to figure out my questions. For instance, several students were in more than one of my classes. Also, I did my observations right before finals week—which I’m sure caused tension in many of the students. And, of course, I had too many variables in my experiment.