Have you noticed an increase in the number of women taking on “granny hobbies”? Turns out it has nothing to do with nostalgia and everything to do with our brains quietly searching for what these hobbies offer us.
A “grandma hobby” is an activity that requires deep concentration, patience, no screen time, and typically involves your hands. Hobbies like knitting, baking, gardening and cross-stitching are becoming increasingly popular among millennials who are looking for activities that help them unwind and recharge.
Dr. Kelly Lambert, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia, coined the term “behaviorals” to describe activities such as embroidery, knitting and cross-stitch that act as drug-free medicine for the brain. “I introduced the term to suggest that physical exertion can activate reward and problem-solving areas of the brain and associated neurochemicals in an intentional way,” explains Lambert. “When you learn something new, neuroplasticity can be improved. When the activity is performed in the presence of others, oxytocin is activated. So behavioral medications can be a preventative and therapeutic approach that just keeps working.”
If you’ve been thinking about getting a hobby, here are five neuroscience-backed reasons why a “grandma hobby” might be the way to go.
1. Good for your mental health
According to Dr. Lambert, who has spent years studying what happens to our brains when we make things with our hands, activities like “grandma hobbies” satisfy a primal human need for creativity and could help combat anxiety and depression. “Because effort is associated with positive outcomes—cooking leads to an enjoyable meal, knitting a scarf as a gift—it likely increases feelings of control over at least small parts of our lives,” she explains. “Insecurity and a lack of sense of control can worsen symptoms of depression, so it is beneficial to gain control and develop a greater sense of self-efficacy.”
In a world where we buy everything we need instead of making it ourselves, we have inadvertently removed the very activities that bring us joy, meaning and a sense of achievement.
2. Can prevent burnout
Burnout occurs when stress accumulates in our bodies and is not processed. Our bodies remain flooded with cortisol and other stress compounds and our nervous system never returns to baseline.
But it turns out that crafting is one of the most effective ways to reduce stress and prevent burnout before it happens. Research from the University of British Columbia finds that repetitive crafts like knitting have a calming effect similar to meditation, signaling to your nervous system that it’s safe.
READ MORE: 5 Doctor-Approved Strategies to Finally Deal With End-of-Year Burnout
3. Strengthens the nerve pathways
Scrolling, swiping, and typing are simple, repetitive movements that put little strain on the brain. But when we work with our hands, such as threading a needle, forming stitches, and following a pattern, we activate and strengthen connections between different parts of the brain.
In a 2024 study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology that compared handwriting to typing, researchers found that handwriting activates far more brain networks than typing. Each letter requires a different hand movement, engaging different areas of the brain. While typing uses the same finger movement for each letter, the brain is hardly put under strain.
As brain researcher and NTNU neuropsychology professor Audrey van der Meer told the New York Times, “Skills that involve fine motor control of the hands are excellent training and super stimulation for the brain.” The same applies to creative hobbies. Each stitch in embroidery or knitting requires different movements and concentration and acts like a strength training for your brain.
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4. Provides healthy stress for your brain
Modern life has eliminated friction in almost everything. We now offer one-click purchasing, on-demand streaming and same-day delivery. Creative health scientist Katina Bajaj says our brains crave “novelty, challenge and even discomfort” and need friction – or “good” stress – to grow.
Learning a new stitch pattern, fixing a mistake in your embroidery, or figuring out how to fix a failed stitch are all challenges that bring our brains to life and are conscious ways we can bring excitement back into our lives to improve our brain health.
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5. Improves memory and attention
If you find it difficult to concentrate and notice that your attention span is decreasing, you are not alone. Our brains have been trained to expect constant stimulation from things like notifications, autoplay, and endless scrolling.
Handcrafting is one of the few activities that can reverse this. Research shows that people who engage in hands-on activities such as knitting, embroidery and other creative hobbies have a 30 to 50 percent lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment.
Why? Because creative engagement strengthens the white matter in our brain and maintains the integrity of neural networks well into old age. Your brain is like a muscle. As you train it through complex hand movements and sustained concentration, it becomes stronger. If you just give it quick bursts of dopamine through scrolling, it will become weaker. It’s not just the amount of dopamine that matters, but also the quality.
Peaks appear when scrolling. Sewing creates something more stable. It turns out your brain was never built for binge drinking.
READ MORE: Here’s how to actually do a digital detox, according to experts
This article by Tahnee Sanders was originally published on Women’s Health AUS.