Effects of natural sound exposure on health recovery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

What the study found

The pooled evidence supports health-recovery benefits from exposure to natural sounds, while effect sizes vary by outcome and stimulus.

Limitations

Limited number of studies for some outcomes and heterogeneous protocols.

Neurodesign interpretation

Natural sound is not one intervention. Water, birds, wind and mixed soundscapes may engage different associations and masking functions.

Possible design implications

Prioritize real or ecologically congruent soundscapes and test them against the target outcome rather than assuming all 'nature audio' is equivalent.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as a recent quantitative synthesis for natural sound.

Study design

Systematic review and meta-analysis

Population

1,285 participants across 15 studies

Setting

Laboratory and environmental exposure studies

Field

Soundscape, health

Mechanism

Stress recovery, affective regulation

Spatial variable

Natural sounds

Keywords

natural sound, meta-analysis, stress recovery, soundscape