Spending just 20-mins outside can lower your stress
Spending just 20 minutes in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature can significantly lower your stress levels, say scientists who recommended that ' nature-pills' can have a measurable effect on our well-being. The study, has established for the 1st time the most effective dose of an urban nature experience.
" We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it was unclear how much is enough, how often to do it, or even what kind of nature experience will benefit us", said one of the researchers.
" Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20-30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature," she said.
Nature pills could be low-cost solution to reduce the negative health impacts stemming from growing urbanisation and indoor lifestyles dominated by screen viewing.
To assist healthcare practitioners looking for evidence-based guidelines on what exactly to dispense, the researchers designed an experiment that would give a realistic estimate of an effective dose.
Over an 8 week period, participants were asked to take a nature pill with a duration of 10 minutes or more, at least 3 times a week.
Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, were measured from saliva samples, taken before and after a nature pill, once every 2 weeks.
Participants were free to choose the time of day, duration, and the place of their nature experience, which was defined as anywhere outside that in the opinion of the participant made them feel like they've interacted with nature:, she said.
" There were a few constraints to minimise factors known to influence stress take the nature pill in daylight, no aerobic exercise, and avoid the use of social media, internet, phone calls, conversations and reading, " she said.
" Building personal flexibility into the experiment, allowed us to identify the optimal duration of a nature pill, no matter when or where it is taken, and under the normal circumstances of modern life, with its unpredictability and hectic scheduling" she added.
Yo make allowances for busy lifestyles, while also providing meaningful results, the experimental design was novel in other aspects too.
The data revels that just a 20-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisol levels. However, if you spent a little more time immersed in a nature experience, 20-30 minutes sitting or walking, cortisol levels dropped at their greatest rate.
After that, additional de-stressing benefits, continue to add up but at a slower rate.
" Healthcare practitioners can use our results as an evidence-based rule of thumb on what to put in a nature-pill prescription, "she said.
" We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it was unclear how much is enough, how often to do it, or even what kind of nature experience will benefit us", said one of the researchers.
" Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20-30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature," she said.
Nature pills could be low-cost solution to reduce the negative health impacts stemming from growing urbanisation and indoor lifestyles dominated by screen viewing.
To assist healthcare practitioners looking for evidence-based guidelines on what exactly to dispense, the researchers designed an experiment that would give a realistic estimate of an effective dose.
Over an 8 week period, participants were asked to take a nature pill with a duration of 10 minutes or more, at least 3 times a week.
Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, were measured from saliva samples, taken before and after a nature pill, once every 2 weeks.
Participants were free to choose the time of day, duration, and the place of their nature experience, which was defined as anywhere outside that in the opinion of the participant made them feel like they've interacted with nature:, she said.
" There were a few constraints to minimise factors known to influence stress take the nature pill in daylight, no aerobic exercise, and avoid the use of social media, internet, phone calls, conversations and reading, " she said.
" Building personal flexibility into the experiment, allowed us to identify the optimal duration of a nature pill, no matter when or where it is taken, and under the normal circumstances of modern life, with its unpredictability and hectic scheduling" she added.
Yo make allowances for busy lifestyles, while also providing meaningful results, the experimental design was novel in other aspects too.
The data revels that just a 20-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisol levels. However, if you spent a little more time immersed in a nature experience, 20-30 minutes sitting or walking, cortisol levels dropped at their greatest rate.
After that, additional de-stressing benefits, continue to add up but at a slower rate.
" Healthcare practitioners can use our results as an evidence-based rule of thumb on what to put in a nature-pill prescription, "she said.
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Spending
just twenty minutes in a place that makes you feel in contact with
nature can significantly lower your stress levels, say scientists who
recommend that 'nature-pills' can have a measurable effect on our
well-being. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology,
has established for the first time the most effective dose of an urban
nature experience.
"We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it was unclear how much is enough, how often to ..
"We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now it was unclear how much is enough, how often to ..
Labels: 20 minutes, cortisol, duration, flexibility, lowers, nature, optimal, personal, reduce, spending, stress levels
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