The reason you like to stretch your arm in the air after a long day

Do you know what I love at the end of a long, hard day?

A nice, cold, single arm stretched in the air while I’m laying on the couch. Nothing beats that. I deserve it.

If you do the same and think you’re a little weird because of it, let me assure you that you’ve never had a unique experience in your life and these arm raises are no exception to that rule.

According to Dr. Karan Raj, a surgeon and TikTok creator, there is even a biological reason for this.

Why do we like to randomly raise our arms in the air?

According to the doctor, this can be a form of relief or actually release the physiological tension in the neck or shoulder muscles, improve blood circulation and minimize nerve compression.

However, it may also be a form of self-simulating behavior or “stimming,” which Dr. Raj says is “common in various forms of neurodiversity.”

This stimming helps regulate sensory input or reduce sensory overload. Dr. Raj describes it as a “biological circuit breaker” that ultimately helps people relax.

Dr. Raj also states that this behavior can also be observed in neurotypical individuals, so a slight arm raise at the end of a busy day is “not an automatic diagnosis of a particular type of neurodiversity.”

If you tend to do this while lying in bed, Dr. Raj says it may be because your body automatically assumes this comfortable position to help you wind down or fall asleep.

He said if you tend to do this often, it becomes a learned behavior that you immediately associate with comfort, and it takes on a mere “reset button” for something meditative.

He ends simply with the words: “Whatever your reason for doing this, it is all about the body, about embodiment.”

Well, exactly.

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