We are proud to support five-week placements for medical students in years 2, 3 and 4, giving them time to explore topics in more depth through supervised projects and focused learning. In this placement, students look at how connection with nature can support mental and physical wellbeing.

One student, Abba, chose to focus on the impact of being outdoors on sleep quality. Here is what Abba found through research:

I had the opportunity to undertake a 5-week research project on the impact of spending more time outdoors on sleep quality as part of my self-proposed SSC. The project involved conducting interviews within the community and comparing my findings to existing literature. The project was split into two key themes: The effects of spending more time outdoors on sleep quality and the barriers to spending more time outdoors. The project holds a lot of personal value to me as a young person in the digital age who spends a lot of her waking hours indoors due to the demands of work and school and has often felt her own sleep and connection to nature had been sacrificed as a result. Below are my top 3 findings and recommendations!

1. The typical duration of the circadian rhythm in humans is greater than the length of one day. Exposure to natural light early in the day induces a correctional shift in this cycle, setting the internal clock earlier, shortening the typical circadian rhythm duration. Recommendation: Get outside first thing!
2. Interview participants found that they spend on average 2-3 hours per day on their phones. The interview participants also mentioned low mood after using their screens-based devices excessively. The literature findings link how internet addiction, low mood and poor sleep all reinforce each other in a positive feedback loop. Recommendation: Don’t use screens at night!
3. Getting around to green spaces without a car is quite difficult. The working day itself is thought to not have enough built in time to spend outdoors as most daylight hours are designed to be spent indoors! Urban environments have a greater chance of encouraging their residents to spend time outdoors engaging in physical activities, if they have sufficient green spaces within walking distance. Recommendations: Take back your health! Write to your MPs and campaign for the right to spend time outdoors. Understanding and reading further on the importance of this can help contribute these findings into health policy!

Undertaking this project has been extremely insightful and helped me to reflect on my own daily habits and how to make improvement in my own mental and physical health as a long-term sufferer of insomnia. Reconnecting to the outside world after spending ten years as a self-described digital recluse, having acquired my first smartphone at 13, it is only recently that I have considered that perhaps living this way is not the most conductive to my overall well-being and that it might be the root cause of my poor sleep and mood. The idea first occurred to me almost 2 years ago when I spent the summer working as an Activity Leader at a summer school. Spending seven days a week, the length of the summer outdoors engaged in physical activity changed my mood and habits completely with almost a complete reversal of all this progress as soon as I moved back home. Since then, I have been pondering ways to replicate such a lifestyle again into my day-to-day life with poor results. Thanks to this research project I can better appreciate the systemic nature of this reclusive lifestyle that I fear has become normalised. I hope this research can be valuable in helping others reflect on their lifestyle and how it might be affecting their sleep and mental well-being.

References.

1.Burns AC, Saxena R, Vetter C, Phillips AJK, Lane JM, Cain SW. Time spent in outdoor light is associated with mood, sleep, and circadian rhythm-related outcomes: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study in over 400,000 UK Biobank participants. Journal of 2620513 CN 96 pg. 13 Affective Disorders [Internet]. 2021 Dec [cited 2026 Jan 17];295:347–52. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032721008612?via%3Dihu

2.Huang I-Ling, Liu CY, Chung MH. Sleep quality and internet addiction among junior college students; The mediating role of depression: A cross-sectional study. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing [Internet]. 2023 Oct 1 [cited 2026 Jan 18];46:1–7. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883941723000961

3.Dresp-Langley B, Hutt A. Digital Addiction and Sleep. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health [Internet]. 2022 Jun 5 [cited 2026 Jan 18];19(11):6910. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9179985/

4.Schamilow S, Santonja I, Weitzer J, Strohmaier S, Klösch G, Seidel S, et al. Time Spent Outdoors and Associations with Sleep, Optimism, Happiness and Health before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria. Clocks & Sleep [Internet]. 2023 Sep 1 [cited 2026 Jan 17];5(3):358–72. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-5175/5/3/27#:~:text=Participants%20who%20spent%20less%20tim