Is adrenaline the ultimate stress relief?
Does a shot of adrenaline instead of your morning coffee set you up for a day of enhanced energy, focus, and productivity?
You might think that’s an impossible question to answer – but it’s one that staff at the International Quarter London (IQL) in Stratford, in collaboration with the University of Essex School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Science, are determined to have a go at, with the help of a giant slide.
Intrigued? So was I, which is how I found myself at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at 8.30am last Tuesday, ready to ride the ArcelorMittal Orbit.
Read more: UK companies can't afford to ignore mental health issues
It’s a slide. A big slide – 178m of slide, in fact. More theme park ride than children’s playground, the slide takes 40 seconds and includes 12 turns, some of them in pitch black darkness.
It is, it’s fair to say, not part of most workers’ morning routine, even those whose offices are located on the nearby post-Olympic development.
“We want to find out whether an adrenaline rush in the morning makes someone a better employee in the afternoon,” says Dr Valerie Gladwell, who is leading the study.
I will admit a healthy degree of scepticism. Yes, whizzing down a giant slide beats the day-to-day office grind, which is probably why IQL had no problem signing up 150 willing participants. But improving productivity and enhancing wellbeing? Really?
Fortunately, I was in an ideal position to test out the theory.
My list of concerns was extensive – both work and life related. Did I know what articles I wanted to commission that day? Would my columnists file on time? Why was my cat sad? When would my internet be fixed? Was I drinking too much coffee? Would Donald Trump blow up the world?
My anxiety was revealed in the survey I filled out on arrival, which questioned not just how secure I felt with my job, but also my general mood, energy, and stress levels. Needless to say, I felt sleep-deprived, fuzzy, and highly strung – a typical morning.
Taking the lift up to the top of the slide, my pulse was already quickening. It was high, higher than I expected, and by watching the participants ahead of me, much steeper than I imagined. It wasn’t until it was my turn and I was in position (too late to back out now…) that I realised I was about to launch myself down a basically vertical tunnel – into darkness.
But there was a queue behind me and pausing to reconsider the wisdom of this experiment wasn’t an option. I was off.
Time is a strange thing – 40 seconds seems like an age when you feel like you’re in free fall, but before I knew it I was out in the sunshine, pulse racing, eyes shining, and laughing.
And I felt… energised, like the worries that had been weighing on my mind were lighter and more distant. According to my survey scores, I was 86 per cent less stressed seconds after riding than I had been before. Not bad.
Andrew Tobin, project director at IQL, who rode the slide straight after me, told me that often stress can build up without us noticing, especially if we don’t have an outlet. I could relate.
His logic was that an adrenaline boost, either from a giant slide or just from exercise, could help dissipate that tension, leaving us happier and more relaxed for the whole day.
That’s what the study is trying to measure, with participants polled about their mood throughout the day. The results won’t be out for a while yet, but I personally did feel calmer and more focused. Maybe that was the novelty, and anecdote obviously isn’t data, but I’ll be interested to see if the findings support my experience.
And even if they don’t, slides are fun. And getting out of the office to spend some time in the autumn sunshine and get your blood pumping can’t be bad for your productivity or general wellbeing. For a Tuesday morning, 10/10, would recommend.
Read more: London workers with mental health problems fail to tell bosses