Feeling Stressed? A free and natural stress-relieving alternative to prescription pills that can lower your cortisol and it takes a few minutes as suggested by a study
A recent study has uncovered that a mere 20-minute immersion in nature can substantially reduce your stress hormone levels. This groundbreaking research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, suggests a tangible dose of nature, paving the way for healthcare professionals to recommend nature breaks with confidence in their tangible effects.
Dr. MaryCarol Hunter, from the University of Michigan and the study’s primary author, shared, “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.”
How long should I spend in nature to reduce stress?
The findings of the study show “that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature.”
A Cost-Effective Solution to Modern Stress
The concept of “nature pills” might offer an affordable remedy to counter the health downsides of our urbanized, screen-centric lifestyles. To provide healthcare experts with concrete recommendations, Hunter’s team crafted a unique experiment to discern an effective “dose” of nature.
Over two months, participants took a nature break lasting a minimum of 10 minutes, at least thrice weekly. Saliva samples measured cortisol levels before and after these breaks, biweekly.
Hunter elaborated, “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. There were a few constraints to minimize 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”
The flexibility integrated into the experiment was crucial. Hunter mentioned, “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.”
To account for daily variations in stress and the natural diurnal decrease in cortisol, the study adopted innovative methods.
“We accommodated day-to-day differences in a participant’s stress status by collecting four snapshots of cortisol change due to a nature pill. It also allowed us to identify and account for the impact of the ongoing, natural drop in cortisol level as the day goes on, making the estimate of effective duration more reliable,” Hunter added.
The Healing Power of Nature
Results demonstrated that a 20-minute nature session was sufficient for a notable cortisol reduction. A deeper engagement of 20 to 30 minutes led to the most significant drop, with prolonged interactions continuing to offer benefits, albeit at a diminishing rate.
Hunter pointed out, “Healthcare practitioners can use our results as an evidence-based rule of thumb on what to put in a nature-pill prescription. It provides the first estimates of how nature experiences impact stress levels in the context of normal daily life. It breaks new ground by addressing some of the complexities of measuring an effective nature dose.”
She anticipates this study will inspire further investigations.
“Our experimental approach can be used as a tool to assess how age, gender, seasonality, physical ability and culture influences the effectiveness of nature experiences on well-being. This will allow customized nature pill prescriptions, as well as a deeper insight on how to design cities and wellbeing programs for the public.”
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