Ready to Listen Up?

Researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) conducted an experiment where participants listened to sounds recorded from natural and artificial environments, while their brain activity was measured in an MRI scanner and their autonomic nervous system activity was monitored via minute changes in heart rate (Gould van Praag et al. 2017). 

The researchers found that when listening to natural sounds, the brain connectivity reflected an outward-directed focus of attention; when listening to artificial sounds, the brain connectivity reflected an inward-directed focus of attention, similar to states observed in anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

There was also an increase in rest-digest nervous system activity (associated with relaxation of the body) and better performance in an external attentional monitoring tasks. 

Other research has found a benefit from listening to nature sounds for:

* Sleep and insomnia, (Nasari, Ghezeljeh, and Haghani 2018)

* improve health, increase positive affect, and lower stress and annoyance. (Buxton, Pearson, Allou, Wittemyer (2021)

* Restoration and stress recovery (after listening to bird sound) (Ratcliffe, Gatersleben, and Sowden 2013; Alvarsson, Wiens, and Nilsson 2010; Ferraro et al., 2020). 

* Boost cognitive performance (Van Hedger, S. C., Nusbaum, H. C., Clohisy,L., Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., & Berman, M. G. (2018)

* Reduction in muscle tension (after less than 7 minutes of nature sounds) (Largo-Wight, O’Hara, and Chen 2016),

* Reductions in anxiety after heart operations (based on clinical trials) (Amiri, Sadeghi, and Negahban Bonabi 2017).

Brief nature sound (less than 7 minute) “booster breaks” are a promising area for future research with important practical implications.

If contact is good but connection is better, but how do we reliably increase a person’s sense of connectedness with nature? At NatureFix we have identified 16 different gateways, some come from research such as Miles Richardsons 5 pathways to connection, some are drawn from anthropology and our Indigenous advisors, others come from the community of nature connection mentors.

The gateway being used in the listen up routine is sensory awareness. Many people who are outdoors often have their headphones on, so it is necessary to actual stop and listen.

However, in practice when you ask someone to listen to nature, they most likely hear just the most obvious (or most annoying sound). This may create a small change, but not the reliable increase in connection. For that outcome we need to guide people out of their sensory ruts, to experience more “ah ha, I never noticed that moments”. This routine uses the technique of listening in 6 directions, encouraging participants to build a greater awareness of the nature sounds around them. Although not used here, another reliable technique is to ask people to notice the quietest sound, this usually results in people hearing a much wider percentage of the entire soundscape.

So, in summary, asking people to listen to nature gets the benefits of tuning into to nature sounds, asking them to listen in 6 directions (or to the quietest sound) causes them to notice more of the soundscape increasing the amount of sound they hear, and also increasing their sense of connection by being more engaged and aware of the noises around them.

We are curious about recent research showing that increased bird diversity is linked to greater overall wellbeing (Cameron etal. 2020, Ferraro etal 2020) . These studies suggest that benefit flow from an increase in actual auditory diversity as well as perceived diversity of birds sounds. Most people do not hear many nature sounds (it’s not that relevant anymore to our survival) and while this routine doesn’t increase physical diversity it could lead to a person perceiving more diversity in the landscape than they would normally would, leading to improved wellbeing.

Sounds provide a specific kind of information over and above the visual which helps enhance and emphasise the different components of the environment.

Sound is present in the landscape for a reason. Think of it as ‘absence and abundance”. If it is silent, that might mean there is an absence of things that people, plants and animals need such as shelter, food, water, protection, pathways, social contact and so on.

If it is noisy, what is there to make it so?

Connecting with the soundscape activates the biophilic and belonging aspects of ‘placemaking’. Placemaking, being a planning framework known to improve personal and social wellbeing (Jack 2015; Fuller et al. 2016).

Multiple studies have also found that nature sounds (especially water) increase peoples pleasure of place, even when viewing urban settings. (Carles, Barrio, and de Lucio 1999).

The invitation in this routine to make a soundmap connects people the underlying natural and human ecology of place. People who regularly tune into the “why” of nature through sound mapping (or other techniques) report that nature stops being something “out there” or “environmental” and starts to feel more like “home”.

This ‘socializing of nature’, and the degree to which people see nature as part of their social identity is a core measurement in psychological measures of connectedness with nature.

In a meta-review of the nature wellbeing literature Capaldi, Dopko, and Zelenski (2014) found: “those who are more connected to nature tended to experience more positive affect, vitality, and life satisfaction compared to those less connected to nature”

It is important to match this exercise with optimal types of nature. The ideal location for this activity should be in areas where urban sounds are minimal because research shows people prefer natural sounds over artificial sounds (Carles, Barrio, and de Lucio 1999). However, our experience is that this exercise will work in urban areas provided some nature sounds are present such as birds singing, running water, wind in the trees, and pleasant human background sounds. The ability to hear water (even distantly) is particularly pleasurable and bird sound particularly stress relieving (Ratcliffe, Gatersleben, and Sowden 2013). A review of 26,000 European residents found that bird diversity is correlated with life satisfaction, and that increasing bird diversity has comparable effects on wellbeing to increasing wealth (Methorst et.al 2020).

Finally, some areas of silence are beneficial to this activity. They provide contrast in the landscape and curiosity in the mind of the user.

Regular users of this exercise will start to notice that sounds are not only in the place for a reason but some sounds, especially the sounds of birds, can become quite repetitive in terms of time of day when you hear them and the specific location of the sound source.

Alvarsson, Jesper J., Stefan Wiens, and Mats E. Nilsson. 2010. ‘Stress Recovery during Exposure to Nature Sound and Environmental Noise’. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7 (3): 1036–46. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph7031036.

Amiri, Mohammad Javad, Tabandeh Sadeghi, and Tayebeh Negahban Bonabi. 2017. ‘The Effect of Natural Sounds on the Anxiety of Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery’. Perioperative Medicine 6 (1): 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13741-017-0074-3.

Buxton, R. T., Pearson, A. L., Allou, C., Fristrup, K., & Wittemyer, G. (2021). A synthesis of healthbenefits of natural sounds and their distribution in national parks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(14), e2013097118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013097118

Capaldi, Colin A., Raelyne L. Dopko, and John M. Zelenski. 2014. ‘The Relationship between Nature Connectedness and Happiness: A Meta-Analysis’. Frontiers in Psychology 5 (September). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00976.

Cameron, R.W.F., Brindley, P., Mears, M. et al. Where the wild things are! Do urban green spaces with greater avian biodiversity promote more positive emotions in humans?. Urban Ecosyst 23, 301–317 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00929-z

Carles, José Luis, Isabel López Barrio, and José Vicente de Lucio. 1999. ‘Sound Influence on Landscape Values’. Landscape and Urban Planning 43 (4): 191–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-2046(98)00112-1.

Ferraro, Danielle M., Zachary D. Miller, Lauren A. Ferguson, B. Derrick Taff, Jesse R. Barber, Peter Newman, and Clinton D. Francis. 2020. ‘The Phantom Chorus: Birdsong Boosts Human Well-Being in Protected Areas’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287 (1941): 20201811.

Fuller, Sara, Sarah Atkinson, Sara Fuller, and Joe Painter. 2016. Wellbeing and Place. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315547534.

Gould van Praag, Cassandra D., Sarah N. Garfinkel, Oliver Sparasci, Alex Mees, Andrew O. Philippides, Mark Ware, Cristina Ottaviani, and Hugo D. Critchley. 2017. ‘Mind-Wandering and Alterations to Default Mode Network Connectivity When Listening to Naturalistic versus Artificial Sounds’. Scientific Reports 7 (1): 45273. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45273.

Jack, Gordon. 2015. ‘“I May Not Know Who I Am, but I Know Where I Am from”: The Meaning of Place in Social Work with Children and Families: The Meaning of Place’. Child & Family Social Work 20 (4): 415–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12091.

Largo-Wight, Erin, Brian K. O’Hara, and W. William Chen. 2016. ‘The Efficacy of a Brief Nature Sound Intervention on Muscle Tension, Pulse Rate, and Self-Reported Stress: Nature Contact Micro-Break in an Office or Waiting Room’. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal 10 (1): 45–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1937586715619741.

Joel Methorst, Katrin Rehdanz, Thomas Mueller, Bernd Hansjürgens, Aletta Bonn, Katrin Böhning-Gaese. The importance of species diversity for human well-being in Europe. Ecological Economics, 2020; 106917 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106917

Pritchard, A., Richardson, M., Sheffield, D.et al. The Relationship Between Nature Connectedness and Eudemonic Well-Being: A Meta-analysis. J Happiness Stud 21, 1145–1167 (2020)

Richardson, Miles, Passmore, H.-A., Lumber,R., Thomas, R., & Hunt, A. (2021). Moments, not minutes: Thenature-wellbeing relationship. International Journal of Wellbeing, 11(1), 8–33 

Nasari, Maryam, TaherehNajafi Ghezeljeh, and Hamid Haghani. 2018. ‘Effects of Nature Sounds on Sleep Quality among Patients Hospitalized in Coronary Care Units: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial’. Nursing and Midwifery Studies 7 (1): 18. https://doi.org/10.4103/nms.nms_39_17.

Ratcliffe, Eleanor, Birgitta Gatersleben, and Paul T. Sowden. 2013. ‘Bird Sounds and Their Contributions to Perceived Attention Restoration and Stress Recovery’. Journal of Environmental Psychology 36 (December): 221–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.08.004.