I am a big fan of The Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild. We have done it every June for the past few years and living in a different location added a new level to it this year. I was going to write a round up of all the ‘Random Acts of Wildness’ we had carried but then I started to read articles about the benefits of spending time outside and how good it is for you.

It’s no secret that this is part of the reason that The Wildlife Trust encourages the general public to get out into the great outdoors, as well as increasing our appreciation for the natural world. In 2015 scientists from the University of Derby tested this theory by surveying the participants of 30 Days Wild. The results showed that embracing daily doses of nature sustained an increase in health, happiness and a connection to the wild. Results from surveys carried out in 2016 and 2017 showed similar results, with increases in particular for participants who considered themselves to have a low level of health and happiness before the 30 days started. The 2017 research also looked specifically at engagement with natural beauty, as this is thought to be key to the connection between nature and well being, and showed this increased in connection to health and happiness.

This hasn’t been the only research in this area either. Last year the University of East Anglia looked at a huge chunk of data from 140 different studies, which included 290 million people from different locations around the world, to see what it could tell us about the benefits of mother nature. They found from analysing all this research that spending time outside can have a positive effect in helping to reduce type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stress, and high blood pressure.

It is also thought that a child’s eyesight can potentially improve through spending more time outside. This isn’t just the age old tale we tell our kids that too much screen time will give them square eyes, but actually based on research that showed increased exposure to natural light reduced the chances of a child being treated for nearsightedness in the future.

So how much time do we ideally need to be breathing in nature for it to have these positives effects? Research published in Nature recently suggests that spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is ideal but it does not matter how this time is broken up, so it could be in smaller chunks or all at once to still have the same positive effect.

Not only does spending time in nature have a positive effect on wellbeing but it’s also thought to increase people’s environmental attitudes and behaviours. With the rise of concern over the environment this is an area of research that is worth investigating further. And if all of that isn’t enough to get you outside and hugging trees then there has been research to support spending time in nature can makes you more creative, kinder and more generous and revitalise you when you are feeling sleepy.

Once again I covered all our days on my Instagram account (@the_life_scientifique) but these are some of my favourites from this year: Al fresco bathing (if only I could have done it as well as the children!), discovering the INaturalist App and being able to identify my finds and potentially contribute to citizen science, having a pet snail, being nature detectives and discovering what was eating our Bougonvillia, being creative with ‘dinosaur bones’ and finding out how lizards detach their tails.