You’ve undoubtedly heard of sunbathing, aka lying beneath the sunshine and soaking up its warmth. But what about star bathing?
Star bathing is one of the most recent budget-friendly wellness trends, and it’s actually quite an effective way to calm your nervous system and ground you in the present moment.
What Exactly Is ‘Star Bathing’?
According to Dr. Sal Raichbach, Psy.D., LCSW, CFSW, Chief Clinical Officer at The Haven Detox, “Star bathing is the act of being purposefully aware of where you are while looking up at the stars.”
Whether you’re lying on your back in an open field or simply gazing up at the stars from your backyard, you can reap the benefits of this simple wellness hack.
“Most often this happens without distractions like phones,” Raichbach says. “It allows your brain to stop thinking constantly and to look out at something steady, large, and separate from yourself. As a clinician, I think of this as a simple mindfulness exercise using a natural setting.”
Benefits of Star Bathing
According to Raichbach, there are a few science-backed benefits of star bathing.
1. It Calms Your Nervous System
To me, nothing is more calming than sitting beneath the stars without any technology around.
“Calmness, perspective, and reset to awareness will likely be the greatest benefits,” says Raichbach. “A 2024 Journal of Environmental Psychology study titled ‘Night Sky Connectedness Index’ found that there was a positive correlation between connectedness to the night sky and mental health and happiness.”
“Star bathing cannot be recommended as a form of treatment, but it could serve as a calming technique for the nervous system,” he adds.
2. It’s a Natural Source of ‘Awe’
Star bathing is a simple way to experience awe, which is shown to improve our mental health.
According to Raichbach, “In 2019, researchers studied 60 older adults. They randomly assigned each participant to an ‘Awe Walk’ (15 minutes) every week for 8 weeks. Those who were assigned to the awe walk group had more positive emotions and less daily distress compared to those who did nothing different during these eight weeks.”
3. It’s Free and Accessible
Perhaps one of the best benefits of star bathing? It doesn’t break the bank (or even touch it), like most wellness trends out there today.
“Star bathing offers individuals another inexpensive way to decrease evening screen time and increase their amount of outside time,” says Raichbach. “A study completed by Scientific Reports with 19,806 adult subjects demonstrated an increased probability of indicating they have good health and high well-being when doing at least 120 minutes of outside activity per week.
How to Practice Star Bathing
Depending on where you’re located (e.g., a big city with light pollution vs. an open field in a small town), star bathing is typically easy to practice. All you need to do is find a semi-remote area with little light and gaze up at the stars.
“Spend ten minutes outside in the dark. Leave your phone behind. Let your eyes get used to seeing things again,” Raichbach says. “Look at the moon. See how big the stars are. Identify the shapes in the sky.”
“It doesn’t matter if you go to a dark-sky park or if you’re just standing in your backyard, porch, or balcony,” he adds. “It’s about focusing on what you’re doing rather than where you are.”
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