Does feeling more immersed mean feeling more relaxed? A VR beach experiment

What did the beach add?

Immersive digital wellbeing often begins with a discussion of realistic graphics and complete environments. For a story experience considering VR, a more useful question is what the additional presentation helps someone do.

A beach experiment separated those questions. Participants heard the same breathing meditation, either on its own, with a monitor, or through a headset. VR increased presence, but the experiment did not establish an additional overall relaxation benefit. That result can guide the next evaluation. It is too narrow to settle whether VR is useful in general.

One audio track, three presentations

All three groups heard a 10-minute breathing meditation based on mindfulness-based stress reduction. This was not a complete multiweek course. The monitor and VR groups added a beach video and ocean sounds. People in VR could look around, but could not directly interact with the environment. The study did not induce stress beforehand.

The comparison asks whether the visuals and headset add something to this guided exercise. Without a quiet-rest or beach-only group, shared changes before and after the session cannot be attributed entirely to the audio. The study also cannot isolate the contribution of nature itself.

Presence and relaxation need separate results

VR produced greater presence than the monitor. Yet the time-by-condition interaction was not statistically significant for general relaxation (p = .180) or heart rate (p = .651). These address differences in change between the groups. Neither can be replaced by a rating of how immersive the scene feels.

There were exceptions. The heart-rate-variability measure RMSSD had a time-by-condition interaction (p = .043), but Bonferroni-adjusted follow-up comparisons did not establish specific differences. Sleepiness also changed in the monitor group. Keeping such details prevents an inaccurate claim that every outcome was the same; they still do not establish a general VR advantage.

A nonsignificant comparison does not prove equivalence. If the product decision is whether a less costly format is sufficient, that question needs an appropriate study with an acceptable difference defined in advance.

For whom, and for how long?

Among the 100 completers, 84% were university students and 81% reported experience with a relaxation technique. This was one laboratory session. It cannot answer what happens after weeks of use, among people with higher stress, or during ordinary use outside the laboratory.

Data quality and outlier exclusions reduced the physiological samples: heart-rate analysis included 75 people, and data quality also reduced the effective samples for other physiological measures. Some subjective-relaxation subscales had poor internal consistency. The authors discuss prior practice, the beach content, combined sounds and limited interactivity as possible explanations. Those explanations were not separately tested in this experiment.

A starting point for Six Realms VR research

The following are this site's evaluation proposals, not product designs validated by the trial.

Keep the content comparable. One story segment could use similar audio, duration and participation tasks on the ordinary web and in VR. Then ask what the presentation adds. If the story, interaction and device all change at once, any improvement becomes harder to explain.

Separate choosing to enter from receiving help. Attractiveness, comprehension and voluntary responses differ from immediate tension, later feelings or lasting change. Define the intended audience and goal before choosing measures. Time spent should not substitute for a wellbeing outcome.

Include comfort and exit. Record discomfort, reasons for stopping and whether leaving is easy. Explain whose follow-up feedback is missing. Greater immersion can be an experience goal worth pursuing. Its added value still has to be demonstrated for particular content, people and comparisons.