Can the boreal forest be used for rehabilitation and recovery from stress-related exhaustion? A pilot study

Abstract

It has been suggested that humans suffering from mental exhaustion recover better in environments that do not demand directed attention. Hence, we hypothesized that forests have restorative effects and examined whether the boreal forest in northern Sweden can be used for rehabilitation from stress-related exhaustion in a pilot study. Six participants suffering from stress-related exhaustion were offered visits twice a week, for 11 weeks, in six different forest settings: pine forest, mixed forest, spruce forest, forest by the lake, the forest with a small stream and rock outcrops. The participants chose one forest setting prior to each visit, and the mental state of each participant was evaluated before and after each visit. Interviews focusing on the experience of the forest were conducted after the 22 visits. Solitude and forest settings with light were identified as positive factors for recovery. Despite the limited amount of data, the results showed that the forest visits had significant positive effects on the participants' mental state. The interviews also indicated that the concept is suitable for use in larger randomized studies and that it is important to provide various forest settings to meet individual preferences of the participants and to offer the possibility of solitude.

Keywords:

• Attention
• burnout
• environment
• human health
• nature
• restoration
• well-being

Acknowledgements

This study is a part of the research program “Forest and Health” at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) with support from the forest company Sveaskog, the Swedish Forest Agency, the municipality of Umeå, Faculty of Forest Sciences at SLU, Centre for Environmental Research in Umeå and the Västerbotten County Council. We also thank Leif Nilsson and Lina Schelin for their help with the statistics.