Fatigue-Recovering Effect of a House Designed With Open Space

Abstract

Exposure to a natural environment has been reported to be associated with positive effects on mental well-being. However, no report has examined the effects of a house designed with an open space connected to nature on recovery from fatigue. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of such an open space on recovery from mental fatigue. Placebo-controlled, crossover design. Participants were randomized into open (connected to nature) and closed (not connected to nature) conditions. Sixteen healthy female volunteers were enrolled. After a 30-minute fatigue-inducing mental task, participants moved to an open or closed recovery room for 30 minutes. As fatigue-evaluating mental tasks, participants performed advanced trail making tests for 20 minutes. They were asked to rate their levels of fatigue, relaxation, comfort, and healing on a visual analogue scale from 0 (minimum) to 100 (maximum) to evaluate their subjective mental. They also underwent accelerated plethysmography. After the recovery session, lower total error counts of a cognitive test, greater levels of subjective relaxation, comfort, and healing, and lower levels of waveform index-1 assessed via accelerated plethysmography were observed in participants exposed to the open condition compared with the closed condition. These results provide evidence that the use of a house designed with an open space connected to nature during the recovery session improved cognitive function and subjective mental states. Hence, open space was effective for helping recovery from mental fatigue.