Relaxing Nature Sounds

[Christian Alradwan]

<div>The cognitive response to the sounds of nature have been shown to result in increased productivity, improved overall mood, and deeper relaxation. For decades, people have been retreating to nature for a sense of calmness and clarity. Whether that is the beach, mountains, rainforest or desert, the sounds of water, wind blowing through the trees, animals like crickets and birds, and other nature-like tones have comforted mankind for many years.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>relaxing nature sounds</div><div></div><div>Download Zip: https://t.co/SXPpVxekWB </div><div></div><div></div><div>In addition, an increasing number of offices have started to implement sound-masking systems that are inspired by natural sounds in lieu of manufactured sounds. The continuous development of improved moods amongst employees has shown benefits of more efficient productivity and a greater sweeping happiness mark across the board.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Nature sounds for sleep are often used amongst other ambient sounds in white noise machines, which traditionally help listeners fall asleep by providing a subliminal diversion to external or internal distractions.</div><div></div><div></div><div>The sleepcasts in Sleep by Headspace provide low-energy environments that build the perfect conditions for a restful sleep. Below is a sleepcast of Rainday Antiques, which establishes a cozy environment using the sounds of rain and visualization techniques through a dreamy atmosphere, building the ultimate environment for relaxation.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Reap the benefits of nature sounds from the comfort of your own space. The Headspace app has a robust offering of sessions that include relaxing nature music to get you started (available only to Headspace subscribers).</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>This page highlights the multiple uses of myNoise, but features only a selection of the extensive library available for free. Visit the Full Index page (also available from the hamburger menu) to discover the many other sounds available for free. Be prepared to be amazed!</div><div></div><div></div><div>Researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) found that playing 'natural sounds' affected the bodily systems that control the flight-or-fright and rest-digest autonomic nervous systems, with associated effects in the resting activity of the brain. While naturalistic sounds and 'green' environments have frequently been linked with promoting relaxation and wellbeing, until now there has been no scientific consensus as to how these effects come about. The study has been published in Scientific Reports.</div><div></div><div></div><div>In collaboration with audio visual artist Mark Ware, the team at BSMS conducted an experiment where participants listened to sounds recorded from natural and artificial environments, while their brain activity was measured in an MRI scanner, and their autonomic nervous system activity was monitored via minute changes in heart rate. The team found that activity in the default mode network of the brain (a collection of areas which are active when we are resting) was different depending on the sounds playing in the background:</div><div></div><div></div><div>When listening to natural sounds, the brain connectivity reflected an outward-directed focus of attention; when listening to artificial sounds, the brain connectivity reflected an inward-directed focus of attention, similar to states observed in anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. There was also an increase in rest-digest nervous system activity (associated with relaxation of the body) when listening to natural compared with artificial sounds, and better performance in an external attentional monitoring task.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Interestingly, the amount of change in nervous system activity was dependant on the participants' baseline state: Individuals who showed evidence of the greatest stress before starting the experiment showed the greatest bodily relaxation when listening to natural sounds, while those who were already relaxed in the brain scanner environment showed a slight increase in stress when listening to natural compared with artificial sounds.</div><div></div><div></div><div>In recent years, the relaxing and restorative effects of the natural environment have gradually gained attention [4,5,6,7], with the development of physiological measurement technology facilitating the accumulation of scientific evidence based on physiological parameters.</div><div></div><div></div><div>In laboratory experiments involving sensory stimuli, the relaxation effect of nature-derived stimulation has been reported. For example, studies have shown positive physiological effects when participants viewed images of a forest landscape [19], wooden materials [20], indoor plants [21,22,23,24], and flowers [25,26], which induced increased parasympathetic nervous activity, decreased sympathetic nervous activity, and decreased prefrontal cortex activity. Stress recovery is also faster in people who view natural scenes than in people who view urban scenes [27]. A number of studies have shown that viewing an image of nature through videos and virtual nature scenes results in decreased stress and increased positive emotions [28,29,30]. Relaxation has also been demonstrated with exposure to olfactory stimuli such as the scent of wood [31,32], fresh roses [33], and rose and orange essential oils [34]. The researchers demonstrated that these olfactory stimuli resulted in increases in parasympathetic nervous activity and decreases in prefrontal cortex activity. Tactile contact with wood resulted in similar physiological effects, increasing parasympathetic nervous activity and decreasing sympathetic nervous activity and prefrontal cortex activity [35,36,37].</div><div></div><div></div><div>These studies demonstrated that nature-derived visual, olfactory, and tactile stimuli affect the brain and autonomic nervous activities, with these changes inducing a state of relaxation in humans. However, there have been few studies on nature-derived auditory stimulation. One study showed that natural sounds tended to promote the recovery of skin conductance levels compared with road noise [38]. In another study on stress recovery effects, participants were shown a virtual reality image with or without natural sounds; viewing the image with natural sounds resulted in enhanced parasympathetic nervous activity and improved stress recovery [39]. As yet, no studies have investigated the effects of natural auditory stimuli on the indicators of brain and autonomic nervous activities.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Time-dependent changes in the oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentrations in the right (a) and left (b) prefrontal cortex during 60 s exposure to the forest vs. city sounds. Data are expressed as mean standard error (n = 29).</div><div></div><div></div><div>The overall mean oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentrations in the right (a) and left (b) prefrontal cortex during exposure to the forest vs. city sounds. Data are expressed as mean standard error (n = 29). * p Indicators of sympathetic nervous activity and heart rate during exposure to the forest vs. city sounds for 60 s. (a) The overall mean natural log of the low-frequency to high-frequency power ratio of heart rate variability (ln(LF/HF)) and (b) overall mean heart rate. Data are expressed as mean standard error (n = 29). * p The HRV results showed a significant decrease in sympathetic nervous activity during exposure to the forest sound. This was consistent with the results of previous studies that investigated the physiological visual effects of exposure to nature [21,23,24,56,57]. These studies reported decreases in sympathetic nervous activity when viewing real pansies (vs. artificial pansies) [56], bonsai (vs. no stimulus) [21,23], foliage plants (vs. no stimulus) [24], and a three-dimensional image of a water lily (vs. a two-dimensional image) [57]. However, the present study found no significant difference in terms of parasympathetic nervous activity during exposure to the forest and city sounds. In contrast, some previous studies have shown significant enhancement in parasympathetic nervous activity with nature-derived stimuli [21,25,32,33,35,36,37]. The reason for the discrepancy between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous activities in the present study remains unknown, and this issue requires further study. The present study also found a decrease in heart rate with exposure to the forest sound compared with that to the city sound. This is consistent with the findings of previous studies on the physiological effects of nature-derived stimuli [32,37]. A similar finding was reported in a recent clinical study on patients hospitalized in a cardiac care unit; in the patient group that listened to natural sounds for 30 min, there were significant decreases in heart rate before and after the intervention [58].</div><div></div><div></div><div>The study focused on shorter HR recordings. For short-term HRV measurement, 5 min recording is generally recommended [44]. To investigate acute physiological responses to sound stimulation, we analyzed the HR recording every 60 s. The HRV indicator became unstable due to the short HR recording. The instability of HRV indices in this study increased the probability of Type II errors (false negatives) in statistical tests, but did not increase the probability of Type I errors (false positives). Therefore, the short duration of the HRV measurements did not impair the reliability of the present results that demonstrated a significant decrease in ln(LF/HF) during exposure to forest sounds.</div><div></div><div></div><div>The most calming sounds from nature available as both free soundtracks and landscape videos in 4K UHD quality. Calm down your body and mind with the most soothing sounds of rain falling, the wind blowing, and birds singing their songs. If you like listening to bad weather sounds, we have roaring thunderstorms with lightning, rainstorms, and ocean storms with large waves crashing. Nature Sounds TV is the best site for sleep sounds, with new free videos posted every week</div><div></div><div></div><div>Browse nature sounds by categories to narrow down your search for the perfect sound to calm down with or use as a sleep sound when you go to bed at night. These categories are packed with nature sound videos covering everything from the shooting sound of birds singing, to loud intense thunderstorm sounds. No matter what type of nature sounds you find the most relaxing, you should be able to find something here. All of our videos also loop indefinitely by themself</div><div></div><div> 356178063d</div>