# foot tapping/leg bouncing **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935 "2000-01-07T14:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/1 "2000-01-07T14:52:00Z")
I thought this was what the “Restless Leg Syndrome” thread was about, but seeing how it wasn’t I’ll start this one. Why do many of us tap our foot and/or bounce our leg throughout the day? I do this CONSTANTLY, and I wasn’t a hyperactive child. Is it a mental or biological impulse? Did it serve some purpose long ago? * * * “You had me at ‘Hell no.’” ---
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/2 "2000-01-07T15:07:00Z")
In my family, it seems to be nothing more than a habit that just keeps getting passed down. My grandpa is a leg bouncer, my dad is a leg bouncer, I am a leg bouncer. I imagine when I have kids, they will pick up the habit from me. * * * Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling. ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/3 "2000-01-07T16:19:00Z")
My grandma used to call it St. Vitus Dance. * * * Yer pal, Satan ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/4 "2000-01-07T16:34:00Z")
Dunno why, but it drives my wife **nuts** when I do it. She still gets annoyed by it. I tell her that I can’t stop it, so she might as well get used to it, but I suspect that she’ll still be complaining about it when we’re both 80. 🙂 On the plus side, I’ve seen studies that indicate that such fidgeting burns calories, so I’m all for it! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/5 "2000-01-07T16:41:00Z")
I do it, so it’s obviously a sign of high intelligence. 🙂 Eithe that, or just a silly nervous habit. * * * “East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/6 "2000-01-07T16:49:00Z")
I’ve done it all my life. Drives my SO absolutely crazy. When I had a roommate some years ago and we would be at a restaurant, at times, he’d say (after the table started shaking uncontrollably), “Hey, you wanna put that thing in idle for a while?” ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/7 "2000-01-07T21:26:00Z")
I do it all the time. Had people complain in movie theaters when it shakes the whole line of chairs. It’s not conscious - I’ll be concentrating on something and then notice I’m doing it. I don’t know if it is tied to restless leg, but I have that too, and I wouldn’t disagree. Sometimes my legs just want to move. In school one person once commented she wondered if I was ever going to fall out of my chair, because I couldn’t sit still. ---
**Author:** ![missdavis102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@missdavis102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missdavis102)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/8 "2000-01-07T21:31:00Z")
> [@](#): > > My grandma used to call it St. Vitus Dance. Isn’t that an old term for epilepsy? Or is it porphyria? ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/9 "2000-01-07T21:38:00Z")
St Vitus’ Dance was a variety of Tourette’s I think. I am hardly hyperactive, but I absolutely cannot sit still, which usually translates into leg bouncing. If I sit still too long, I find myself suddenly twitching my legs, nervous tic like. God I hate having a desk job. * * * [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) There’s a million fine looking women in the world, dude, but not all of them will bring you lasagna at work. Most just cheat on you. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/10 "2000-01-08T00:29:00Z")
There’s a short explanation of St. Vitus Dance at this link, and it’s not just because you bounce you’re leg. [http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/peds/pidl/neuro/chorea.htm](http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/peds/pidl/neuro/chorea.htm) * * * I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/11 "2000-01-08T00:55:00Z")
Sydenham’s Chorea or St. Vitus’ Dance is associated with Rheumatic Fever and Strep. I live with it everyday. I went to school on Thorazine and Penicillin for the first eight years. I was still irratating to everybody around me. My leg never stopped bouncing, but neither did the rest of me. * * * I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/12 "2000-01-08T06:29:00Z")
OK, so … so far … a lot of us do it, it bugs the hell out of everybody, and we don’t have a clue as to exactly why. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/13 "2000-01-08T15:38:00Z")
Well, I have absolutely no cite for this, but I’ve always heard that this was a form of subconscious masturbation. Regardless of the truth, this theory provided many instances of amusement back in my school days. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/14 "2000-01-08T15:58:00Z")
Sometimes leg bouncing is a subcounscious manifestation for something someone said or did that you don’t like. The leg usually points in the direction of the person. Watch tv talk shows, youcan see it at work. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foot-tapping-leg-bouncing/5935/15 "2000-01-09T03:49:00Z")
Well, I used to do this (leg bouncing) while taking tests in school–now I do it when I have to sit still too long (which varies depending on how much caffeine I’ve had–for instance, I’m doing it now (of course, it could be because of the topic of discussions) and I’ve only been at my computer for about a half hour, but I’ve had 3 or 4 cans of Pepsi today (and I spent the previous 45 minutes “sitting” while driving home from my brother’s birthday party)). Also, my mother says my grandfather (her father) used to do it. I don’t know if any of her brothers do, but I’ve never seen her do it. * * * Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99. “We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F.