If you're feeling stressed, rather than wallow in front of the television try looking out of the window, with a US study finding scenes of nature can alleviate minor stress levels.
Researchers at the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab at the University of Washington set out to look at whether nature, either the real thing or depicted technologically, can impact on minor stress levels.
The study involved measuring people's heart recovery rate from minor stress when they were exposed to a natural scene through a window and when exposed to the same scene shown on a high-definition plasma screen, or a blank wall.
"The heart rate of people who looked at the scene through the window dropped more quickly than the others. In fact, the high-definition plasma screen had no more effect than the blank wall," the researchers said in a statement.
They also found that when people spent more time looking at the natural scene their heart rates tended to decrease more. That was not the case with the plasma screen.
The study, involving 90 college students, is published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
"Technology is good and it can help our lives, but let's not be fooled into thinking we can live without nature," Peter Kahn, who led the research team, said in a statement.
He said people were losing direct experiences with nature and instead experiencing nature represented technologically through television and other media with children growing up watching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.
"But as a species we need interaction with actual nature for our physical and psychological well-being," he said.
累了嗎?可不要老看電視，多看看窗外的風景。因為美國一項研究發現，看看自然風景可以緩解輕度壓力。
華盛頓大學「人與自然互動及技術系統實驗室」的研究人員對「自然能否緩解輕度壓力」這一問題進行了探究——無論這個「自然」是真實的還是通過技術手段展現出來的。
在研究過程中，研究人員測量了研究對象在輕度壓力下看到窗外的一處自然風景，以及在高清等離子顯示屏或白牆上看到同一風景時的心跳恢復率。
研究人員在一份聲明中稱：「看窗外自然風景的人心率下降的速度比其他人都要快。事實表明，高清等離子顯示屏與白牆的效果差不多。」
此外，研究人員發現，人們看自然風景的時間越久，心率下降得就越多;而通過等離子顯示屏看風景的人卻並非如此。
該項共有90名大學生參加的研究在《環境心理學期刊》上發表。
研究小組組長彼得•卡恩在聲明中說：「科技有很多好處，能給我們的生活提供很多幫助，但我們不能因此就認為我們可以沒有大自然了。」
他說，如今人們親近大自然的機會越來越少，而是體驗通過電視和其它媒介等技術手段呈現的大自然，現在的孩子也都是看著「探索頻道」和「動物星球」之類的節目長大的。
他說：「但作為自然界的一大物種，我們需要接觸真實的大自然，以保證我們的身心健康。」