Why What We See Outside Matters

The Boston Globe has an excellent article up on "How the City Hurts Your Brain", which goes a long way in explaining why life in the city is exhausting.

City life can also lead to loss of emotional control. Kuo and her colleagues found less domestic violence in the apartments with views of greenery. These data build on earlier work that demonstrated how aspects of the urban environment, such as crowding and unpredictable noise, can also lead to increased levels of aggression. A tired brain, run down by the stimuli of city life, is more likely to lose its temper.

In one of the findings, they suggest that modern human life needs to be balanced by places of nature, and that a diversity of flora is actually more helpful for the brain.