HEALTH AND WELLBEING
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Circadian lighting can help mitigate the effects of artificial environments, promoting better health. Watch out for your phone’s blue light here
such as a forest or the ocean – have also proven popular in regulating stress levels. During the Covid-19 pandemic – when life looked pretty bleak – many people noticed that nature seemed to be healing while industrial society took a back seat. People spent more time outdoors, heard birdsong returning to their once traffic-heavy cities and seemed to gain a new appreciation for the natural world. Around the same time, the BBC worked with a research group at the University of Exeter on two projects: Forest 404 and Soundscapes for Wellbeing. These projects explored the relationships between music, natural soundscapes and listeners’ wellbeing, suggesting that adding natural sounds to a virtual environment could produce positive feelings and behaviours, and that this outcome is more likely when the soundscapes include birdsong and other animal noises. Both studies also indicated that memory plays a key role in people’s responses to natural soundscapes. In other words, individuals who associated a soundscape with a memory of that physical environment were more likely to react positively to it. While the science suggests that digitised soundscapes can be beneficial, they cannot entirely replace exposure to the natural world (find out more at virtual-nature.com).
are at odds with our ancestors’. Instead of spending ample time outdoors and being physically active by default, we are forced into offices and apartment complexes – we go out of our way to exercise. While AV technology isn’t exactly a natural supplement, it does a decent job of mimicking sunlight and birdsong, which can counteract depression and promote calmness, even when digitised. Circadian lighting – lighting which is designed to complement a person’s circadian rhythm or biological clock – is an emerging trend in both at-home and office environments. Regulating blood pressure, body temperature and melatonin production, our circadian rhythms respond to light and darkness. Unlike many animals, humans are not nocturnal, but artificial lighting can trick our bodies and throw off our rhythms (we have all likely heard that too much screen time before bed can produce poorer sleep, for instance). Circadian lighting is meant to realign us with our natural rhythms by providing the optimal amount and type of light at specific times throughout the day. It supposedly improves sleep, reduces stress and enhances alertness – among numerous other benefits – leaving us more in sync with our bodies and brains. Similarly, natural soundscapes – which place the listener into an environment
People spent more time outdoors, heard birdsong returning to their once traffic-heavy cities and gained a new appreciation for the natural world”
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