My landscape architecture student reminded me of a famous study in 1984 published in Science that examined the recovery times of patients in a Pennsylvania hospital. Half the patients were in recovery rooms where they looked at a wall, and the other half had views of trees. I loved reading the results of this study. Researchers found this:
“In summary, in comparison to the wall-view group, the patients with the tree-view had shorter postoperative hospital stays, had fewer negative evaluative comments from nurses [and] took fewer moderate and strong analgesic doses. . . ” This study inspired many others since the 1980’s to research the “restorative effects of natural views.”
Why not take a stroll in the forest or look at trees today?