For all the recordings of nature marketed as relaxation and sleep aids, not all “nature sounds” are necessarily soothing. You’re not, for example, likely to snooze while listening to raucous seagull calls.
A recent study by scientists in Germany, Peru, and the United Kingdom explored the features of nature sounds that elicit mental well-being. “We still don’t really know how the diversity and complexity of sounds affects how people feel, or why some sounds may be more uplifting than others,” explained study author Kevin Rozario, a graduate student at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, in a press release.
The researchers recruited 195 students in Germany to listen to a couple of minute-long recordings. The recordings varied in the number of species making sounds as well as the locale—a local temperate forest or a distant tropical forest. Each student reported on how they felt during the recordings vis-à-vis their stress levels and ability to focus.
Read more: “Are We Wired to Be Outside?”
Overall, they felt better after listening to any of the recordings. Hearing bird sounds and the rustling of trees is relaxing in any context. The more surprising result was that sounds from temperate European forests, which felt more familiar to the participants, were ranked as more relaxing than the tropical sounds. You’d think that the exotic sounds of a tropical jungle might at least rank as more awe-inspiring, but the local sounds won on that count, too.
“Sounds that remind people of forests they know—like the birds they hear on a walk close to home—seem to have a much stronger positive effect,” said study author Aletta Bonn, research group head at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.
As for species diversity, sounds of familiar animals increased feelings of awe, but unfamiliar ones didn’t move the needle. In other words, the effect wasn’t just about how many species are out there but also about which species. “This provides amazing new insights into the complex ways in which biodiversity and mental well-being are connected,” said Bonn.
It’s hard not to like the sound of that. 
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Lead image: Jorm Sangsorn and mro / Adobe Stock
