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 alleviate¹ minor² stress levels.

Researchers at the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological³ Systems Lab at the University of Washington set out to look at whether nature, either the real thing or depicted⁴ technologically⁵, 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 plasma⁶ 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 Psychology⁷.

"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.

累了吗？可不要老看电视，多看看窗外的风景。因为美国一项研究发现，看看自然风景可以缓解轻度压力。

华盛顿大学“人与自然互动及技术系统实验室”的研究人员对“自然能否缓解轻度压力”这一问题进行了探究——无论这个“自然”是真实的还是通过技术手段展现出来的。

在研究过程中，研究人员测量了研究对象在轻度压力下看到窗外的一处自然风景，以及在高清等离子显示屏或白墙上看到同一风景时的心跳恢复率。

研究人员在一份声明中称：“看窗外自然风景的人心率下降的速度比其他人都要快。事实表明，高清等离子显示屏与白墙的效果差不多。”

此外，研究人员发现，人们看自然风景的时间越久，心率下降得就越多；而通过等离子显示屏看风景的人却并非如此。

该项共有90名大学生参加的研究在《环境心理学期刊》上发表。

研究小组组长彼得•卡恩在声明中说：“科技有很多好处，能给我们的生活提供很多帮助，但我们不能因此就认为我们可以没有大自然了。”

他说，如今人们亲近大自然的机会越来越少，而是体验通过电视和其它媒介等技术手段呈现的大自然，现在的孩子也都是看着“探索频道”和“动物星球”之类的节目长大的。

他说：“但作为自然界的一大物种，我们需要接触真实的大自然，以保证我们的身心健康。”