When you study for a long time, you may lose focus. In one study, students looked at a photo of a green roof for only 40 seconds. After that, they made fewer mistakes.

But a later study did not get the same result. Even so, short breaks can help you feel less tired. Walking outside may work better than looking at photos. During a break, try not to use your phone.

Have you ever read the same line three times because you could not concentrate? In 2015, researchers at the University of Melbourne gave 150 students a boring task that needed steady attention. In the middle, the students looked at a photo of either a green roof with flowers or a concrete roof for 40 seconds. Those who saw the green roof made fewer mistakes afterward.

However, in 2022, a team that included the original researchers repeated the idea with 254 people and found no difference in performance, although people felt more refreshed by nature images. Other research suggests that short breaks reduce tiredness, and that using a smartphone for 45 minutes can make attention worse. A walk outside seems to be a safer choice.

Attention restoration theory proposes that effortful concentration gradually wears down our capacity to focus, whereas natural scenes attract attention effortlessly and allow that capacity to recover. A widely cited 2015 experiment from the University of Melbourne seemed to support this: 150 students performing a monotonous task made fewer omission errors after viewing a flowering green roof for just 40 seconds, compared with those who viewed a concrete roof.

However, the finding has proved fragile. In 2022, a team that included members of the original group ran two experiments with a total of 254 participants and found no difference in task performance, even though participants reported feeling more restored after nature images. Reviews of the wider literature suggest that contact with nature has small to moderate benefits for functions such as working memory, with considerable variation between studies, and that real outdoor exposure may be more effective than pictures. Meanwhile, a 2022 meta-analysis concluded that micro-breaks reduce fatigue but did not clearly improve performance overall, and a 2023 experiment found that 45 minutes of smartphone use slowed responses. The sensible conclusion is that breaks matter, but their content probably matters as well.