Sounds and Stress

Liu and associates studied how various sounds influence mental recovery from stress. They “compar[ed] a silent environment (control group) with three experimental groups exposed to flowing water sound, birdsong, and wind sounds. The investigation entailed the assessment of subjective assessments and EEG signals . . . the [perceived restorativeness] scores for the sounds of flowing water and birdsong were superior to those of the silent environment. The EEG results revealed that EEG-α activity was more pronounced in response to natural sounds than the silent environment, with birdsong evoking the most significant EEG-α activity. Wind sounds increased the mental stress of the subjects. Conversely, birdsong and flowing water sound were beneficial for alleviating mental stress.”
Information on alpha brain waves can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_wave
Chao Liu, Xiaotong Jing, Jing Shi, Jiaxin Li, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Weijun Gao. “Effects of Natural Sound on Human Stress Recovery Based on EEG Techniques.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102365