Living in a green street would allow you to sleep better

The authors of this research reached this conclusion after relying on figures from the international BlueHealth survey, which collected health data from 18,838 adults from 18 countries. They focused their analyzes on a subset of 16,077 volunteers, for whom they had information on their sleep duration, mental well-being and types of exposure to nature.

Study participants were asked about their degree of closeness to nature, such as whether they lived on tree-lined streets or saw rivers, lakes or other blue spaces from their home. It appeared that volunteers living near natural spaces slept better than those who interact less with nature in their daily lives.

Only 17% of people living in leafy streets said they slept less than six hours a night. In comparison, 22% of volunteers who lived on concrete streets were short sleepers. “While a 5% difference may seem small, these results are comparable to the difference in sleep between people who support themselves on their current income and those who are under financial pressure. With financial worries widely recognized as a determining factor when it comes to sleep, we believe this proves that greening the streets should be recognized by governments as an important public health issue,” explains Dr Mathew White, one of the co-signatories of the study , In a statement.

More generally, this research shows that living close to nature improves sleep quality. This discovery is all the more significant since it has been proven that sleeping well is as important for health as exercising or eating healthily. The authors of the study encourage policymakers to create more green spaces in residential areas to ensure the physical and mental well-being of those who live there.

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