The Health Benefits of Spending Time in Nature
It’s unlikely to come as a surprise that spending time in nature helps you feel better. A growing body of research connects greater exposure to natural environments - including parks, woodlands, beaches - with better health and well-being. With summer upon us, it’s the perfect time to incorporate more nature into our lives.
How Nature Improves Focus and Attention
Nature is a powerful environment for thinking. When you’re outside, the things you see - leaves moving, water, open sky - are easy for your mind to take in. They hold your attention without demanding it.
Compare that to the attention you pay indoors. Screens, papers, decisions: that kind of focus in intense and depleting. After hours of it, your capacity to concentrate runs down. Outside attention becomes effortless - your mind gets to rest while staying engaged. In one study, adults who took a 50-minute walk in nature had less anxiety and better working memory than those who walked through a city. You don’t need a forest for this - a walk through a park or even a greener stretch of your neighborhood can give your mind the same kind of break. If you’re feeling stuck on a problem at your desk, a walk outside may just help you think through it better.
How Nature Relieves Stress
Nature also helps your body recover from stress. In one study, people who had just completed a stressful task calmed down faster listening to nature sounds - their nervous system settled more quickly.
The benefits don’t require much. They can come from a simple walk, or even looking out the window. Though more is better, if all you have time for is a moment, take that mindful moment.
Air Quality and Respiratory Health
The air inside your home and office is often more polluted than the air outside. Indoor concentrations of air pollutants are typically two to five times higher than outdoor concentrations. Spending more time outdoors therefore means breathing cleaner air - and research links neighborhood greenery to lower rates of respiratory disease.
Sleep and Mood
Sunlight affects your circadian rhythm more powerfully than almost anything else. Direct sunlight has 200 times the intensity of indoor office lights. When it enters your eyes, it resets your internal clock - helping you fall asleep more easily, sleep more deeply, and wake more refreshed.
Sunlight also eases symptoms of depression and low mood. Light therapy is used to treat both seasonal and major depression.
Nature Helps Us Heal
The effect of nature runs deeper than mood. In a landmark study, hospital patients recovering from surgery healed faster when their rooms looked out on trees rather than a brick wall - shorter stays, less pain medication.
Ways to Bring More Nature Into Your Life
You don’t need a national park, or a backyard. Small changes add up:
Set up your desk near a window, or add a plant or two to your view.
Go for a walk - ideally to the nearest park.
Meet a friend at a park instead of a coffee shop.
Take the long way home through a greener street.
When you’re having a hard time with a decision or having a hard day, get outside.
Most of us know that nature is good for us - and summer is a perfect time to enjoy it. The hard part is making the time - and when dinner’s already handled, that’s one less thing standing between you and a restorative nature-filled walk.
Sources
Alvarsson, J. J., Wiens, S., & Nilsson, M. E. (2010). Stress recovery during exposure to nature sound and environmental noise. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7(3), 1036–1046. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph7031036
Bratman, G. N., Daily, G. C., Levy, B. J., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Landscape and Urban Planning, 138, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.005
James, P., Hart, J. E., Banay, R. F., & Laden, F. (2016). Exposure to greenness and mortality in a nationwide prospective cohort study of women. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(9), 1344–1352. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5010419/
Ulrich, R. S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science, 224(4647), 420–421. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.6143402
White, M. P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J., et al. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific Reports, 9, 7730. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44097-3