Dusk is closing in on a Kent woodland. I am rooted to the spot, listening to a nightingale sing from deep within a thicket. His song is so exquisite,
so intricate, so stupendous, it’s all I can do not to break into enraptured applause when the song gives way to silence.
While not all birds are maestros in the league of the nightingale, birdsong – be it the melodic noodling of a blackbird, the resonant refrain of a song thrush or the tumbling notes of a chaffinch – always lifts my mood and makes the world feel like a better place.
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I’m far from alone in finding comfort and joy in nature’s soundscapes. “The sounds of nature have long generated powerful reactions in humans, inspiring music and poetry,” says Dr Rachel Buxton, assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences at Carleton University in Canada.
Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 6’ reputedly depicts the song of the nightingale, cuckoo and quail, while folk singer Judy Collins’ 1970 song ‘Farewell to Tarwathie’, with the haunting accompaniment of humpback whale song, sparked the Save the Whale campaign.
“Study after study has shown that people prefer the sounds of the natural world to anthropogenic [human made] sounds,” says Buxton. The growing market in natural sound apps attests to this.
How does listening to nature help our health?
But it’s not just music to our ears. “An increasing body of research suggests that the acoustic environment can play an important role in human health and wellbeing,” says Buxton. Her 2021 research review, pooling the results of 18 studies on natural soundscapes, reported benefits ranging from improved mood and decreased stress to lower blood pressure, a reduced perception of pain and enhanced mental performance.
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Until recently, sound has played second fiddle to sight in research on the benefits of nature exposure. “When sound was considered in experimental work, it was usually from a negative perspective – the detrimental effects of noise pollution or
how to mitigate it,” says Dr Alex Smalley, an environmental psychologist at the University of Exeter.
Smalley’s research focuses on the potential positives of natural soundscapes. “Sound is such an integral part of how we experience and sense nature,” he says. In one of his research projects, 7,500 subjects were asked to imagine a stressful situation that had left them feeling mentally and emotionally fatigued, while listening to a busy city soundscape. Next, they listened to one of a range of natural sounds and rated how calming they found it.
Natural sounds can be divided into biophonic – those created by living things, such as the sound of bees buzzing around flowers – and geophonic – the sounds of Earth’s natural forces, such as distant thunder or waves lapping on a beach. The study found that biophonic sounds were the key ingredient.
“When we removed biophonic sounds from the soundscapes, leaving only geophonic sounds, people found them significantly less restorative, both emotionally and cognitively,” says Smalley. “It mattered to people when the sound of living things was missing.”
In other recent research, people undertook attention tasks while listening to birdsong, running water or road traffic. Not only were scores higher when they were being serenaded by nature, they also had lower heart rates and felt happier.
Why do the sounds of nature affect us?
So why do the sounds of nature affect us so powerfully? Some researchers suggest that we are ‘hardwired’ to respond positively to natural sights and sounds. This idea is rooted in biophilia theory: sociobiologist Edward O Wilson’s contention that our evolutionary history has conferred upon us an innate affinity with nature.
This means that we feel less stressed and less depleted by natural environments, making them the ideal place to restore calm, happiness and focus.
“It’s hard to argue against the evolutionary take,” says Smalley. “It is certainly part of the picture. But we can’t discount the fact that the way we respond to different sounds is deeply influenced by our associations and memories. For example, studies that focus on numerical data alone might suggest that people prefer the sounds of robins and blackbirds to rooks and seagulls; but on an individual level, the cry of seagulls might remind you of childhood holidays in Cornwall, bringing back happy memories and leaving you with a warm nostalgic feeling.”
I can attest to this. Not everyone would find the primal bellowing of a red deer stag in rutting season a pleasant sound, but whenever I hear it, I am immediately transported to hiking up the west coast of Scotland and recall the thrill of that adventure. There could be something else at play here, too.
“Natural sounds have the potential to elicit feelings of awe,” explains Smalley. “Such feelings can make us feel small, but in a good way. We are humbled, we worry less about ourselves and behave more altruistically.”
The type of awe I experienced, with a frisson of fear thrown in, is known as ‘sublime’ awe – an emotion you might feel while hearing a thunderstorm raging, or witnessing a fiery sunset. Aesthetic awe is more of a mingling of admiration and wonder: “it redefines your parameters of what’s possible,” says Smalley. You might experience it watching a virtuoso violinist – or listening to a nightingale sing.
The importance of our associations with sounds was revealed by a 2016 study, in which people listened to an indistinct ‘white noise’. Those who were told it was the roar of a waterfall reported it to be more psychologically restorative than those who were told it was industrial machinery. “This challenges the notion that our preference for natural sounds is shaped solely by evolution,” says Smalley. “We ascribe meaning to sounds and we have learned, cultural responses to them.”
Will digital sounds work the same way?
While getting into nature is the best way to experience its soundscapes, digital technology can play an important role. As I write, I have the gentle music of waves washing on a beach in the background. It’s rhythmic and soothing.
Some researchers are concerned, though, that substituting ‘real life’ nature with digital simulacrums, be it via headphones, screens or virtual reality headsets, will stop people seeking out nature. Buxton is concerned that it risks “further commodification of nature”.
But Smalley points out that the majority of research on natural sounds has used digital proxies in the lab, because it makes studies easier to conduct and control. “Of course, listening to waves crashing against rocks on headphones doesn’t allow you to feel the wind buffeting your face or taste the salt on your lips,” he says. “It can’t replace nature and nor should it attempt to. But what it can do is augment and enhance our nature experiences.”
The example he offers is the BBC series Green Planet, in which digital technology – spatial audio, time lapse, macro – took us deep into the private lives of plants, making us think differently about plants we see every day.
Another reason digital technology must not be discounted is the fact that most of us – 84% in the UK – live in towns and cities, where it isn’t always easy to hear natural sounds. Smalley hopes that virtual experiences of nature could help people notice the nature around them. “Nature isn’t only found in the countryside,” he says. “Even in an urban jungle, there will always be a blackbird singing on a rooftop. It just might take a little guidance and effort to tune in.”
The reasons why natural sounds affect us so powerfully are many and varied. “Listening to these sounds strengthens our feeling of connection to nature and confers a sense of place,” says Buxton. Smalley adds that the more we deepen our awareness of the soundscape, the more we – and nature – have to gain.
“Initially, you might walk past a hedgerow and pay it little attention. Then perhaps you notice birdsong, the call of a robin. Then you notice the distinctive song of another bird and download an app to identify it. Over time, you can learn to recognise more of the life within the hedgerow through sound alone. Suddenly, what used to appear to be a mundane piece of greenery is revealed as a rich, biodiverse ecosystem. These insights can help you feel more connected to the landscape, and might even nudge you to behave in a more pro-environmental way.”
With natural environments in an increasingly perilous state, changing the way we relate to the ecosystems around us has never been more important. Listening to nature’s own incredible orchestra could help to improve not just your own health, but the health of the planet, too.
