Can Natural and Virtual Environments Be Used To Promote Improved Human Health and Wellbeing?

Abstract

Exposure of individuals to natural environments, such as forests and coastlines, can promote stress reduction and assist in mental recovery following intensive cognitive activities. Settings as simple as hospital window views onto garden-like scenes can also be influential in reducing patients’ postoperative recovery periods and analgesic requirements. This paper reviews the evidence supporting the exploitation of these restorative natural environments in future healthcare strategies. The paper also describes early research addressing the development of multisensory, computer-generated restorative environments for the benefit of patients with a variety of psychologically related conditions (including depression, attention deficit disorder, pain, and sleep deficit), who may be unable to access and experience real natural environments, such as those in hospices, military rehabilitation centers, and long-term care facilities. The Table of Contents art is a virtual reconstruction of Wembury Bay, in the southwest of the UK, based on imported Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) to provide the topography and a high-resolution aerial image to provide a template for the location of 3D building and vegetation models, rock features, and pathways. The 3D environment is rendered using the Unity 3 Game Development Tool and includes spatial sound effects (waves, wind, birdsong, etc.), physics-based features (such as early morning sea mist), time-of-day cycles, and real-time weather changes. The Village Church of St. Werburgh can also be seen in this image.

Excessive Game Playing Is Associated with Poor Toothbrushing Behavior among Athletic Children: A Cross-Sectional Study in Miyagi, Japan

“…Excessive game playing in the bedroom directly disrupts sleep (Chaput et al 2014). A national survey conducted in Japan reported that the average time spent playing games among Japanese children is approximately 1.66 hrs per day, and that about 10% of Japanese children spend ≥ 4 hrs per day on game playing (National Institute for Educational Policy Research 2014), which indicates that time is shifted from sleep duration to game playing (Depledge et al 2011). Considering that toothbrushing is generally performed in the morning and at night (Murtomaa 1979;Macgregor et al 1996;McKay et al 2016), sleepdisturbed children also show a higher prevalence of dental caries, likely due to the lower frequency of toothbrushing (McKay et al 2016).…”

Human health impacts of ecosystem alteration

“…On the positive side, experience in nature, as well as outdoor exercise, have been associated with increased mental and physical well-being, as well as enhanced cognitive functioning (70). Reduced postoperative recovery times and lower analgesic requirements in hospitalized patients with access to a natural view through their room window point to a deeply seeded relationship between the natural world and the psycho-physiological dimensions of human health (71).…”

The Application of Salutogenesis in Communities and Neighborhoods

“…Compelling evidence exists for links between contact with green space and better mental health (Depledge, Stone, & Bird, 2011), however as the literature suggests, access to green space is variable according to where you live. A survey from the Netherlands, involving 25,000 people, reported that those living within 1 km of green space were more likely to have a stronger perception of good health (Maas, Verheij, Groenewegen, De Vries, & Spreeuwenberg, 2006).…”