Department of Forestry and Forest Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Management and Agriculture, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Poland.
Department of Forest Utilization, Institute of Forest Sciences, University of Life Sciences in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 7;16(1):e0244799. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244799. eCollection 2021.
Forest bathing is an outdoor activity, and it might be a promising preventive treatment for social problems involving stress. A vast number of studies confirm the positive effects of this activity on people's health. Nevertheless, little is known about the influence of winter forest bathing when conducted in an environment with snow cover on the ground and trees. Thus, a crossover experiment was designed in this study, with the participation of twenty-two healthy university students from Finland. During the experiment, a short exposition by a forest environment or landscape with buildings (as a control) was applied. Participants self-reported their psychological relaxation before and after the exposition, and the results were analyzed and compared. The mood, emotions, restorativeness, and subjective vitality were recorded as indices reflecting the psychological relaxation effect. The negative mood indices decreased significantly after exposition by the snow-covered environment, but the positive 'vigor' indices did not increase or decrease significantly. The level of negative emotions increased after the exposition with the control environment. Likewise, positive emotions decreased after the interaction with the control. Restorativeness was significantly increased after the exposition by the experimental forest but decreased after the viewing of the control buildings. The size of the effect in terms of restorativeness was the highest in this experiment. The subjective vitality was lowered as affected by the control, but it did not increase or decrease after the exposition with the experimental forest. There is probably an effect from the slight interruption in the process from the influence of the forest greens on participants because their vigor and vitality did not increase after the exposition with this environment in the study. However, snow might influence the participants as a calming and emotion-lowering component of the environment, but this idea needs to be further explored with the involvement of participants from other countries who would be viewing forest environments with snow cover and whose psychological relaxation could be measured.
森林浴是一种户外活动，可能是一种有前途的预防应激相关社会问题的治疗方法。大量研究证实了这种活动对人们健康的积极影响。然而，对于在雪地覆盖的地面和树木环境中进行冬季森林浴的影响，人们知之甚少。因此，本研究设计了一项交叉实验，共有 22 名来自芬兰的健康大学生参与。在实验过程中，参与者会接受一段森林环境或带建筑景观的短展示（作为对照）。参与者在展示前后自我报告心理放松程度，然后对结果进行分析和比较。情绪、情感、恢复力和主观活力被记录为反映心理放松效果的指标。在雪地环境的展示后，负面情绪指标显著下降，但积极的“活力”指标没有显著增加或减少。在控制环境的展示后，负面情绪水平增加。同样，与控制环境的互动后，积极情绪下降。在实验森林的展示后，恢复力显著增加，但在观看对照建筑后，恢复力下降。就恢复力而言，本实验的效果最大。在控制环境的影响下，主观活力降低，但在实验森林的展示后，活力没有增加或减少。由于参与者受到森林绿色的影响，过程可能会受到轻微干扰，因此他们的活力和活力在实验后没有增加。然而，雪可能会对参与者产生影响，成为环境中平静和降低情绪的组成部分，但需要进一步探索有雪覆盖的森林环境的参与者来自其他国家，他们的心理放松可以通过测量来衡量。
