Improving Sleep Quality Through Urban Gardening: An Exploratory Study

Objectives: This study evaluated the effects of a 12-week urban gardening program on the subjective and objective sleep quality of adults with sleep disturbances living in urban settings. Methods: Adults aged ≥40 years with impaired sleep quality participated in weekly urban gardening sessions over 12 weeks in Songdo, Incheon, Republic of Korea. Sleep quality, insomnia severity, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 12-week follow-up using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia Severity Index, and visual analog scales. Objective sleep parameters were measured using polysomnography at baseline and post-intervention. Salivary cortisol levels were assessed at all three time points. Results: Participants showed significant improvements in sleep efficiency, sleep-onset latency, and insomnia severity following the intervention, with benefits maintained at the 12-week follow-up. Participants with objectively impaired sleep efficiency (<85%) showed pronounced improvement. Subjective stress and depressive symptoms also improved; however, the salivary cortisol levels did not show a consistent pattern of change. Conclusions: Urban gardening may serve as a feasible, community-based, and non-pharmacological intervention for improving sleep quality in adults with sleep disturbance. Larger randomized controlled studies are warranted to confirm these findings and further explore the underlying physiological and psychological mechanisms.