Spending time listening to the sound of the creek or the song of birds in a forest has a positive effect on our health. It is good for morale, it acts on stress levels and on our cognitive abilities. We relax, stress relieves and we are more attentive. But ‘the sound of Mother Nature’ also affects pain sensitivity. A research carried out by Rachel Buxton, a biologist at Carleton University in Canada, published in PNAS.
“We usually examine the surrounding environment from an acoustic point of view, evaluating the noise pollution and calculating its negative influence on fauna and flora – explains Buxton -. But many biologists are very interested in the opposite. They want to understand what the benefits of noises linked to natural elements that we find in parks or forests “.
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For this Buxton and colleagues decided to analyze the scientific literature on the subject, discovering that most of the studies had been carried out in laboratories or hospitals on groups of volunteers. Looking at 36 experiments, the scholar saw that seven had been examined the effect of noises on heart rate, pressure, pain or stress levels. The other researches had instead measured the consequences of a noisy environment on mood and cognitive abilities.
Trying to combine all the positive effects found in these studies on groups of volunteers exposed to natural noises, the experts found that the individual’s overall health improved by 184% and that stress levels dropped by 28%.
But what were the most popular sounds? The sound of the water was in first place, followed by the singing of the birds. The researchers then decided to analyze the records over time, over 15 years, in 68 national parks, examining a total of 221 sites. The sounds were then classified into groups: noises caused by humans, animals or natural elements (wind, rain ..).
In the natural environment, water-related noises were present in 23% of cases, while those of birds in 42%. Parks with the best sound quality and low human-related noise were in Alaska, Hawaii and Northwest Canada. “In this long research, we have collected evidence that listening to ‘natural’ sounds together with noises brought by man is still healthier than a situation where only noises are present – said Buxton – We do not know why this happens but we can do some hypothesis. Do you think that from an evolutionary point of view an acoustic environment with many natural sounds relaxes, gives a perception of safety and allows the mind to rest “.
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