The Effects of Chewing Gum on Perceived Stress and Wellbeing in Students Under a High and Low Workload

Abstract

Research has suggested that chewing gum relieves perceptions of stress in stressed and nonstressed individuals, but is most beneficial for those experiencing a greater amount of negative work characteristics. To determine if this was true in a student sample, the present study assigned 36 students to four one-day intervention conditions in which participants either chewed or refrained from gum and experienced a high or low workload. The results showed that an individual's perceptions of stress and mental fatigue decreased as a result of chewing gum. Depression and cognitive failures decreased as a result of experiencing a high workload. Perceptions of physical fatigue decreased when chewing gum under a high workload. The findings suggested that gum may be an effective way to reduce certain stress characteristics, and also reassuring students that a high workload is not necessarily detrimental to their wellbeing.

Differences in Anxiety Levels Between Chewing Gum and Lemon Inhalation Aromatherapy in Hemodialysis Patients

“…Chewing gum to relieve anxiety has the potential to develop into a habit that could become addictive (Yaman-Sozbir, Ayaz-Alkaya, & Bayrak-Kahraman, 2019). Students who chewed gum for 20 minutes a day reported less stress overall, with the biggest benefits occurring when they had a heavy workload (Smith & Clayton, 2020). While chewing gum reduces beforehand anxiety without raising the risk of pulmonary aspiration, it does aid women experiencing gynecological preoperative anxiety and dry mouth during the preoperative fasting period (Bang, Lee, Kim, Lee, & Min, 2022).…”

The Relationship Between Workload, Fatigue and Sleep Quality of Psychiatric Staff

“…Mental workload has been widely studied in both laboratory [1,2] and occupational settings [3,4,5]. Workload is a multi-dimensional concept involving time, task input load, operator effort, performance or other outcomes [6].…”