ENO Geeking Out; Going Back to School with Hammock Cognitive Study

Taking a break from designing industry leading hammocks and hammock accessories, Eagles Nest Outfitters tapped into their inner nerd and dove into hammockers’ cognitive performances with Lyon College.

Building on last year’s pilot hammock study where members of Lyon’s Psychology Department surveyed 80 Lyon students to determine their hammock and relaxation attitude, the second part of the series examined how hammocks fared when compared with a traditional desk chair and an Adirondack chair.

“From what we’ve seen and heard through our fans, hammocks are a great alternative to take a time-out between classes, or rest and recuperate after a hard day’s work,” said Adam Cohen, ENO’s Head of Vendor Relations and the brains behind the survey idea. “We wanted this next section of the study to prove that.”

The second part involved randomly assigning approximately 75 participants to one of three conditions: a desk chair, Adirondack chair or ENO hammock. The participants rated their levels of specific emotions, state of relaxation and physical symptoms before sitting in their respective seat and performing a number of cognitive tasks. Following the completion of the tasks, participants again rated their emotions, relaxation and physical symptoms.

The results, although not demonstrating a difference in cognitive tasks, did show that there were significant differences between the amount of change in some emotions, relaxation and physical symptoms between the ENO hammock and the other chairs.

 “There was a trend toward significance in improvement on [the participants’] ratings of happiness and muscle tension,” said Dr. Patrick Mulick, Associate Professor of Psychology for Lyon College. “Finally, in relation to the participants overall rating of ‘feeling comfortable,’ the hammock group demonstrated a significantly greater level of improvement.”

What does this mean? It means although hammocks don’t necessarily make you smarter, students are going to feel happier, more relaxed and satisfied spending time in one before, after, or during classes.

The official results of the survey will be published after the third part is completed in the Fall of 2014. During this section, social aspects will be analyzed to help illustrate why hammock lounges can be a positive edition to Universities and Colleges nationwide.

“We want to explore why hammocking together encourages novel relationships between people, and to see if it changes social interactions between people who already know each other,” said Mulick.

ABOUT LYON COLLEGE
 

Lyon College is a community distinguished by its academic curriculum, unique Honor and Social Systems and award-winning professors. As one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the South, Lyon strives to create a learning environment that is not only academically challenging, but one that is indicative of building character and integrity. Lyon College is also the first College or University to house ENO Campus Hammock Lounges that encourage hammock use among the student body

 

ABOUT ENO

 

Eagles Nest Outfitters, the brain child of brothers Peter and Paul Pinholster, was founded in the summer of 1999. Growing steadily from a two-man, one-van operation, to the leading provider of ingeniously crafted parachute hammocks and outdoor accessories, the company offers the highest quality relaxation products for adventure travelers and outdoors lovers everywhere. ENO products are sold in over 1500 retail locations in 10 countries, and online at www.enonation.com

By press release