A Multisensory Approach to Virtual Reality Stress Reduction

Forest bathing is a nature immersion practice that reduces stress, restores mental resources, and has a wide variety of use cases in the treatment of mental illnesses. Since many people who need the benefits of forest bathing have little access to nature, virtual reality (VR) is being explored as a tool for delivering accessible immersive nature experiences via virtual nature environments (VNE’s). Research on VNE’s mainly utilizes the audiovisual capabilities of VR, but since forest bathing is a fully multisensory experience, further investigations into the integration of other sensory technologies, namely smell and temperature, are essential for the future of VNE research.