Comparing the sleep benefits of Nature-Based Interventions: Evidence from a Bayesian Network meta-analysis.

Abstract

Sleep health represents a growing global public health concern, underscoring the urgent need for scalable non-pharmacological interventions. We conducted a Bayesian network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to synthesize comparative evidence on sensory-oriented nature-based interventions (NBIs) for sleep health in adults. Across the evidence network, all intervention categories consistently outperformed conventional care, whereas between-modality differences were generally modest. This suggests that the therapeutic benefits stem from a shared effect of nature exposure, rather than a single dominant mechanistic pathway. Robustness analyses confirmed the stability and reliability of the comparative effect estimates. These findings provide an integrative synthesis of randomized evidence and support NBIs as accessible, scalable strategies to improve sleep health. They also underscore the critical need for larger, more rigorously designed RCTs to refine estimates of the comparative effectiveness of different NBI modalities.