Saving The Elf: Immersive VR Experience Utilizing Multiple Relaxing Approaches

The global prevalence of anxiety has seen a significant increase in the past few years. Anxiety, if left untreated, can lead to various detrimental effects, such as sleep disturbances, excessive fear, and even suicidal tendencies. Traditional face-to-face therapies have been employed to address this issue; however, their effectiveness is limited by time and space constraints, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, computer-based systems have emerged as a potential solution. However, most existing relaxation systems rely on a single method and have unnatural interactions, leading to a lack of variety and engagement. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes a virtual reality (VR) relaxation system that combines various relaxation techniques, a captivating storyline and natural interactions to enhance the user experience. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed system, a pilot study was conducted with 36 participants. The study utilized a between-subjects design, dividing the participants into three groups: a control group, a progressive muscular relaxation group, and a virtual reality relaxation group. The findings revealed that the virtual reality relaxation system significantly reduced anxiety levels among the participants. Importantly, this effect was observed to persist even after a period of time and was found to be more effective than using only one relaxation method in the long term. Moreover, the performance of our system is close to that of commercial systems.