Listening to birds can reduce your mental health let's know
Listening to birdsong can help to reduce anxiety and paranoia in healthy participants, a study has found.
A German team of researchers investigated the effect of urban traffic noise versus natural birdsongs on the mood and cognitive performance of participants.
The German researchers are affiliated with the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Prior research has shown that spending time in natural environments may help reduce symptoms of stress or anxiety and provide general benefits for well-being.
The study showed that brief exposure to birdsongs reduced anxious and paranoid states in healthy subjects, independent of whether the birdsong came from two different or more different bird species—i.e. low- versus high-diversity conditions.
According to Stobbe, the results of the study have several implications for our understanding of how the environment influences our well-being.
According to Stobbe, the results of the study have several implications for our understanding of how the environment influences our well-being.
The presence of birdsong may be a subtle indication of an intact natural environment signalling a vital, biologically valuable and threat-free safe space for humans," he said. "This may explain the beneficial effects of reduced anxiety and paranoia.
It is also known that people who report higher connectedness with nature can benefit more strongly from the healing impacts known to be provided by natural environments.