When you are next outdoors, take the time to stop and listen. Scientists say the sounds of nature can reduce stress, restore attention and boost mood. Open your ears and heart to nature’s song and feel the benefits yourself, says Sam Pyrah
Dusk is closing in on a Kent woodland. I am rooted to the spot, listening to a nightingale sing from deep within a thicket. His song is so exquisite, so intricate, so stupendous, it’s all I can do not to break into enraptured applause when the song gives way to silence.
While not all birds are maestros in the league of the nightingale, birdsong – be it the melodic noodling of a blackbird, the resonant refrain of a song thrush or the tumbling notes of a chaffinch – always lifts my mood and makes the world feel like a better place.
I’m far from alone in finding comfort and joy in nature’s soundscapes. “The sounds of nature have long generated powerful reactions in humans, inspiring music and poetry,” says Dr Rachel Buxton, assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences at Carleton University in Canada. Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 6’ reputedly depicts the song of the nightingale, cuckoo and quail, while folk singer Judy Collins’ 1970 song ‘Farewell to Tarwathie’, with the haunting accompaniment of humpback whale song, sparked the Save the Whale campaign.
“Study after study has shown that people prefer the sounds of the natural world to anthropogenic [human made] sounds,” says Buxton. The growing market in natural sound apps attests to this.
But it’s not just music to our ears. “An increasing body of research suggests that the acoustic environment can play an important role in human health and wellbeing,” says Buxton. Her 2021 research review, pooling the results of 18 studies on natural soundscapes, reported benefits ranging from improved mood and decreased stress to lower blood pressure, a reduced perception of pain and enhanced mental performance.
Until recently, sound has played second fiddle to sight in research on the benefits of nature exposure. “When sound was considered in experimental work, it was usually from a negative perspective – the detrimental effects of noise pollution or how to mitigate it,” says Dr Alex Smalley, an environmental psychologi
