How Birdsong Can Help Your Mental Health

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hearing birdsong can help us feel less anxious, recover from stress faster, and even reduce muscle tension ... but can it help us fall asleep? Drew Ackerman of Sleep With Me podcast listens to recordings of birdsongs to see if it'll help with insomnia.

Link to episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/5n7sxjtb

Episode summary:

Drew Ackerman, aka Scooter of Sleep With Me Podcast, has always struggled to get to sleep. Even as an anxious kid, worries would keep his mind churning as the night wore on. For our show, he tried a science-backed practice for easing stress: listening to the twitter of birds. He discovered the recordings reminded him of easeful summer afternoons, transporting him to another time and place. The research bears this out: different sounds affect us in different ways. For many, birdsong lowers our body’s stress responses. And for Drew, that helped him get a little sleepier.

Practice:

Listen to a recording of birdsong that appeals to you.

Today’s guests:

Drew Ackerman You might know Drew as his alias, “Dearest Scooter,” the host of Sleep with Me podcast. Drew struggles with bedtime worries and has a history of insomnia himself, but he’s great at helping others sleep. Sleep with Me is one of the most listened-to sleep podcasts. On each episode, “Scooter” lulls listeners off to dreamland with meandering bedtime stories intended to lose your interest.

Listen to Sleep With Me Podcast: https://pod.link/sleep-with-me

Follow Drew on Twitter: https://tinyurl.com/2p8nrhnp
Follow Drew on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dearestscooter/
Follow Drew on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sleepwithmepodcast/

Emil Stobbe is a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany.

Jesper Alvarsson is a professor of Psychology at Södertörn University in Sweden.

Eleanor Ratcliffe is a professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey in the UK.

More episodes like this one:

The Science of a Good Night's Sleep (Sleep Tips, With Drew Ackerman) - https://tinyurl.com/3wrwzrxy

Why You Should Snap Pictures of Nature (Appreciating The Outdoors, With Tejal Rao) - https://tinyurl.com/erwdvwrw

Related Happiness Breaks (a short, guided practice by The Science of Happiness)

Restore Through Silence, With Tricia Hersey - https://tinyurl.com/4h8ww8ub

Feeling the Awe of Nature from Anywhere, With Dacher Keltner - https://tinyurl.com/43v74ryn

Tell us what sounds relax you! You can even send us a recording, we’d love to hear it. Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness!

Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My sleep troubles and my anxiety and almost fear around sleep started when I was at like
0:09.6	fifth or sixth grade. The biggest battle at bedtime if we're putting a label on it is
0:15.9	against hopelessness, right? That's really what underlines my lack of sleep and
0:22.3	the things that cause my lack of sleep and the things that cause my lack of sleep.
0:25.0	It's like this underlying hopelessness that all will not be well.
0:31.0	As a kid I tried like different nature loops, you know streams or waterfalls.
0:37.0	Thunderstorms.
0:41.0	Thunderstorms.
0:43.2	And I think more popular was like more exotic
0:51.6	nature sounds back in the 90s.
0:54.0	I guess it was all or nothing thinking because it was like
1:00.0	this just is never going to work for me.
1:02.0	It's not going to put me to sleep.
1:04.6	I was definitely wrong.
1:05.6	My impression was mistaken.
1:08.3	If you're dealing with stuff that underlying it is hopelessness,
1:12.3	there is something hopeful about listening to bird songs.
1:16.6	It definitely helped me feel more relaxed and almost a sense of like I guess mild
1:27.5	security like hey I want to be here this is a nice place to be. Hi, I'm Dacker Keltner. Welcome to the Science of Happiness, where on each episode we share
1:49.6	lab-tested practices you can try at home to support your well-being.
1:55.0	Hundreds of studies have shown that being in nature is good for our bodies and our mental health.
2:02.0	We know that being immersed in nature or garden. is good for our bodies and our mental health.
	...

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