It is an indicator of two scientifically confirmed phenomena: 1. Genius on the part of the leg bouncer; and 2. Boringness on the part of the pointy haired moron running the meeting. You will notice that the person running the meeting never does this unless some idiot is droning on about nothing.
I have restless leg syndrome and it almost always hits me in the evening if I’m sitting around and only occasionally after I go to bed. I wouldn’t rule it out completely. I’ve occasionally had it hit me during the work day.
Previous thread on the subject. I like the ADD hypothesis. It fits nicely with a lot of behavior I’ve observed. I just did it right now. I was thinking about the next sentence I was going to write, and my mind drifted off to thinking about lunch. When I started jiggling my foot, my attention snapped back to the task at hand.
Aren’t all hairs pretty much tapered at the distal end? 
I do the leg jiggling and all manner of fidgeting all the damn time. Even when I’m in bed or reclining on the couch watching tv or reading, the leg or foot is always going. Drives my husband nuts.
When I was first diagnosed (at age 40 or so) with ADHD, I went to a support group kind of thing and every single person in the room was fidgeting and carrying on like we were having petite mal seizures. It was nice to finally be with my people.
My husband does it and the Dr. just diagnosed it as restless leg. A less common symptom, to be sure, but still restless leg. Put him on the same meds as they would for the night time jumpy legs. Of course, he also has untreated ADHD… (treated as a child, but the meds now make him relapse to speed use…)
Did I say they were poor workers? They’re not. I’ve just noticed they’re often not able to recall some of the principle points of a work discussion. And they’re invariably jiggling one of their legs during the discussion.
And I’m not the one conducting the meeting, either, nor am I the boss. I will just later say something like, “Oh, you know how they were telling us that the whole office will be moving next November?” “What?!! Really?!!” “Yeah. Half of this morning’s meeting was about that.” “You’re kidding! Wow! What are we going to do?” “Well, we’re going to do the things they talked about in the meeting…” Etc.
That’s what I do. But it seems to serve a very different purpose this way. It’s to hold on to a thought when other thoughts are creeping in.
I always do it, and I don’t usually notice it unless someone points it out. I have figured out that it intensifies when I’m concentrating.
And I’ve never, ever had anyone suggest that I have ADHD, nor do I display any symptoms of it. I do have mild obsessive-compulsive disorder, I don’t know if the leg jiggling is related to that.
Yeah I do this all the time. It’s not because I’m nervous, it just feels comfortable. My leg never seems to get tired of it either - I do it with either leg but mainly with my right. It annoys my family and friends no end and I don’t even realise I’m doing it often until someone says ‘Stop it!’ or puts their hand on my leg to prevent it as if I’m sitting at a table, the entire thing shakes. I think its genetic too, my sister and cousins all do the same, so badly that it feels like an earthquake when we all sit round the table at Christmas. Not very many people seem to do it regularly, and I know several people who suffer from ADHD, one very badly and none of them have it so it doesn’t seem to be related to that. I’m quite a restless person, pace a lot, and the only other person I know outside of my family is too so that seems like a reasonable explanation.
I do it because I almost have to. I would have to consciously try not to do it if I was forced not to for a time and then that would be all I could think about. I wouldn’t even hear anything in the meeting. I simply hate to be forced to sit still for any extended period of time. It is mild to moderate torture depending on the conditions. I despise watching movies in a movie theater or watching TV with groups of people for this very reason. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the movie after it is over because all my concentration goes to sitting still and thinking how I am going to get the person back that got me into this situation.
As usual, people that have this trait are superior to those that don’t. We tend to be smarter, more creative, better at multi-tasking, and even thinner (because of incremental calorie burning) than those that don’t.
What on earth did we do on Fridays before the SDMB was Google indexed, giving us two-year-old necro’d threads to post in?
I can’t believe I didn’t post to this 2 years ago, I do this all the time. But I do not have ADHD.
What’s weird is that this thread got bumped when there’s one from just last year about the same thing…in that thread I said we do it to keep from running away screaming from meetings, and I’ll stand by that answer 
ADHD tells me to get up and wander away, and during meetings I’m not allowed to make up the usual excuses for doing so (“Oh, you need a copy of that form? Don’t worry, I’ll go get it for you. No, I don’t mind”) and jiggling my leg keeps the flight instinct tamped back a bit. If I didn’t jiggle my leg, I’d wag my pen instead, and people seem to find that even more irritating.
I am bouncing my leg as I opened this thread.
Way back when the Myers Briggs test came out, it was supposed to be a sign of someone being an extravert (actually, it was fidgeting in general). Supposedly, extroverts who are forced to keep quiet find themselves moving around trying to find someway to get their thoughts and feelings out. I don’t buy it. I’m not an extrovert, and I’ve had the jiggly leg in meetings for a number of reasons:
- I’m bored
- The meeting is long and my leg is falling asleep or the seat is uncomfortable
- Something is making me really nervous or anxious
- I really have to go to the bathroom
I had never heard that about the Meyers Brigg but I am as introverted as they come and I do it. It is for the opposite reason actually. I don’t like hearing people talk for too long, especially dumb and long-winded ones. Most valid points can be made in just a few sentences and a very short time. Professional actors on a screen are bad enough but the usual meeting fodder is many times worse. I usually read while watching movies and look over notes or doodle in a way that isn’t noticeable during meetings. I had panic attacks from being forced to listen to people talk for too long with nothing meaningful to say with no good way to escape. It isn’t something that I am proud of and I would get rid of it if I could but it is very uncomfortable when times seems to be moving at a different speed for other people than it is for you. The leg bouncing is just keep the engine in your mind running at all like the strategy a driver in a car with a maladjusted carburetor would use.