The Restorative Effect of Staying in a Broad-Leaved Forest on Healthy Young Adults in Winter and Spring

Abstract

Many studies have assessed the impact of deciduous trees in the vegetative season on humans’ restoration. But still, it remains unknown if this positive effect will also be observable in deciduous forest during winter, when trees maintain no leaves. To test the hypothesis that deciduous trees also produce psychological restoration during winter (in comparison to spring), we designed an experiment, in which the same participants viewed the forest environment during these two seasons, while urban setting was used as a control environment. The participants filled in four psychological questionnaires, which measured different psychological conditions. The results confirmed the hypothesis that deciduous trees had the restorative effect in the winter, and it was even greater than in the spring time. These results suggest that the living woody plants in their natural environment produce a positive, psychological effect on humans, hence visiting deciduous forest also during winter can be recommended as a method for stress reduction.

Keywords: environment; forest bathing; seasons; stress reduction; woodland