Why You Probably Spend Less Time Outside Than You Think You Do

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While we all have different schedules and while some people are able to spend more time outdoors than others are, one thing that's true of a lot of us is the fact that we tend to overestimate the amount of time that we are actually spending outside. Even if you think that you spend a decent amount of time outside, there's a good chance that you actually spend less time outside than you think you do.

I know that this was true for me. I was actually pretty shocked when I heard the statistics for how much time the average person spends indoors and then realized that I was spending a lot more time inside that I had originally thought I was. It made me realize that it's important to try to be intentional about increasing outdoor time when possible and also to try to have a home environment that is as healthy as possible since most of us spend such large amounts of time indoors.

Jump to:

• How Much Time Do People Spend Inside?
• A Historical Perspective on Time Outdoors
• Why Outdoor Time Is Important for Our Health
• So What Can We Do About It?
• Don't Stress About It

How Much Time Do People Spend Inside?

I've heard some different numbers for how much time people typically spend inside each day, but the average percent mentioned seems to be that we spend somewhere around 90% our of time inside each day.

This article talks about a survey that was published that shows that people spent on average about 86.9 percent of their time indoors with another 5.5 percent of their time in a vehicle (which I would consider to be basically indoors, too, because the car is more of an artificial environment to be in than a natural environment.) And since this study was done in the 1990s I would imagine that the numbers might be even higher if the same survey were done today because I wouldn't be at all surprised if people were spending even more time inside now than they were then.

When I first heard that percent I thought there was no way that it was true of me. 90 percent seemed like such a big number that I didn't think that it could possibly be accurate that I could be spending such a large percentage of time indoors. After all, I was being intentional about going outside to get Vitamin D from the sun, and I was taking my dog for a walk, and I was taking care of my chickens which were all outdoor activities. I thought that maybe I was one of the exceptions to that statistic and that I spent more time outdoors than average. But then I actually did the math to see what 90 percent would look like in hours.

It turns out that spending 90 percent of your time indoors means that you would actually be spending about 21 and a half hours inside each day and two and a half hours outside in a day. That's actually a lot more time spent outside than I would have thought. And I realized that there have been many days where I haven't spent that much time outside.

When you think about it, unless someone plays an outdoor sport or works in an outdoor environment, there are probably a lot of people who don't spend two and a half hours outside on a typical day, especially on weekdays. A lot of people might take a half hour walk and maybe spend a little bit of time doing yardwork or some other miscellaneous things, but two and a half hours is actually a pretty significant amount of time.

It's easy to think that the little bits of time that you spend outside throughout the day add up to being more than they actually do. Sometimes it can seem like we go outside several times during the day, but some of those times might be just a minute or two to walk from the car to a store or walk out of the house to get the mail, etc. And I still think that all of those brief outside times are very beneficial and are certainly better than not going outside at all, so I'm not saying that those little bits of time aren't helpful. I'm just saying that I can see how it can be very easy to assume that you spend a lot more time outside than you actually do.

Here's a little chart I made to help with seeing what the different percentages of time actually would be for indoor vs. outdoor time:

A Historical Perspective on Time Outdoors

In the past, it was much more common for people to spend a longer amount of time outdoors, even at times when the weather wasn't ideal. If you were someone who had any kind of livestock you would still need to take care of them no matter what the weather was like, and that would involve being outdoors for at least part of the time or making trips back and forth to a barn. If you lived in a rural area you would probably spend some time each week traveling to and from town by horseback or in an open wagon or carriage, or if you lived within a town you might do more walking to do errands, go to church, visit friends, etc. And if you lived on a farm you would probably spend a good portion of your day outside planting and taking care of crops, harvesting, mending fences, chopping wood, etc. And many people had some type of kitchen garden to take care of even if they weren't farmers.

There would have been some exceptions, of course, like for people working long days in factories, for example, or for those who were too ill to get outside, but in general most people would have been spending more time outside than the average person spends outside today. Even common household chores would have required more outdoor time in the past. While many people today do their laundry inside with machines that don't require ever stepping outside, people in the past would have hung their laundry outdoors to dry, and they might have even done some of the washing outdoors, too, depending on their situation. Rugs would have been taken outside to beat the dust out of them rather than using a vacuum to clean them. And even preparing food might have included time spent harvesting produce or herbs from a garden rather than getting a grocery delivery from a store.

Why Outdoor Time Is Important for Our Health

One big difference between the indoors and the outdoors is the light that we are exposed to because the light indoors is often very different in color spectrum and brightness than the natural light from the sun outdoors. This can have an impact on our circadian rhythms, our mood, our energy levels, etc. Indoor lighting is often quite high in blue light, for example, while the light outside changes in the amount of blue light throughout the day and that blue is balanced with the full spectrum of light including a lot of red light that most of our modern lighting doesn't have anymore.

Indoor light is often much dimmer than the light outside, too, even though it doesn't always seem like it is. This can have an effect on our mood and energy levels because having enough brightness can help with improving mood and energy and most indoor lighting is quite a bit dimmer than that. The light outside, though, even on cloudy days is usually much, much brighter than the light inside. This article from MyCircadianApp shows a chart comparing the brightness of different environments as well as listing out several ways that having enough brightness (measured in lux) can effect our health.

Another reason why times outdoors can have an impact on our health is because the air indoors can actually have more pollution and air quality issues than the outdoor air does. There are several different factors that contribute to poor air quality inside of buildings as well as some things that we can try to do to improve the air inside of our homes where we spend a significant portion of our time. These articles talk a bit more about some of the potential sources of indoor air quality issues as well as some strategies for mitigating these issues:

• The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality
• What Makes Indoor Air Unhealthy

And in addition to the factors of circadian rhythm and air quality there are several other ways that being outside can benefit our health. Being outside is linked to a wide variety of benefits including improvements in sleep, productivity, focus, blood pressure, and many more. Here are a couple of articles that list out some more of the health benefits associated with spending time outside if you'd like to read more about this topic:

• Nature Makes You . . .
• Time Spent In Nature Can Boost Physical and Mental Well-Being

So What Can We Do About It?

While most people can't drastically change their schedules around to include hours of extra time outside, there are still some things that we can do to increase the amount of time we spend outdoors as well as some strategies to help for times when we can't go outside either because of our schedules, or weather, or health conditions, etc.

Try To Bring Activities Outside When You Can

While you might not be able to spend large blocks of time outside on a typical day, you might be able to find some ways to incorporate smaller amount of time outside that will add up over time. If you can combine something that you would already be doing with time spend outside then you can squeeze little bit of outdoor times into your schedule even if it feels like you don't have time to be outside.

One idea for bringing normal activities outside would be to eat a meal outside if the weather is nice. Another thing you could do is to go outside if you are going to do any reading or looking at your phone. I've been doing that more often recently with doing some Bible reading outside or reading a fiction book or even scrolling on my phone.

And there might be other things, too, that you might be able to find that you would be able to do outside. If you work from home you might be able to bring your laptop outside and do some work there or if you are a student you could do some homework outside.

Depending on where your live the weather can make outdoor time more challenging for parts of the year, of course, and depending on what your individual situation is there may be times when you aren't able to spend much time outside, but when possible it can be helpful to try to be intentional about adding little bits of time outside into your day when you are able to do so.

Exercise Outside Rather Than Indoors

Instead of exercising indoors at a gym all of the time, you could do some of your exercise outside instead when the weather allows. While you might be more limited in the types of exercise that you can do without the equipment you would have at a gym, you could try exercising outside a couple of days a week and then still do your favorite workout routine at a gym on the other days.

Open Windows When You Can

Opening up some windows is a way to bring a little bit of the outdoors inside for times when you aren't able to actually go outside yourself. Opening a window will bring some fresh air inside your home, and it will also bring some natural light in to help balance out the artificial light. Since modern window glass blocks some of the sun's full spectrum, the light you see coming through window glass isn't the same as if you were to step outside in full daylight.

I've been opening windows more often now when the weather is nice, and I've found it very relaxing to hear some of the outdoor sounds like birds singing and crickets chirping, too. If you live in a city then you might find noise to be a hindrance for opening windows, but if you live in the suburbs or in a more rural area then opening a window can help you experience a little bit of the outdoors for times when you need to be indoors.

Work On Improving Indoor Air Quality

Since there are times when we can't go outside and since many of us have times of the year when the weather is too cold or too hot to be able to spend a significant amount of time outside for portions of the year, it's important to do what we can to keep the air quality inside our homes as good as we can since we spend so much time there.

One way that we can improve indoor air quality is by reducing the amount of toxins we are exposed to in our homes. There are lots of potential sources of indoor toxins when it comes to things like cleaning products, personal care products, air fresheners, scented candles, etc. but a good way to start reducing indoor toxins would be to be aware of the ingredients in the products you are using and try to switch them out for more natural options little by little when you are able to. And, in the meantime you could open a window when using cleaning products, for example, to reduce some of the chemical fumes. Or turn on the bathroom fan if you are cleaning the bathroom. Or you could switch out products with synthetic fragrances for ones scented with natural essential oils.

Dusting regularly and getting an air purifier would be a couple of other possible ways to improve the quality of the air inside your home. The articles I mentioned above in the section titled "Why Outdoor Time Is Important for Our Health" have a lot more information about indoor air quality and ways to help to improve it, too.

Don't Stress About It

It's important to mention, though, that we shouldn't stress about the times when we aren't able to spend as much time outside as we would like to. There are various reasons why we might have times when we end up needing to spend more time indoors, and feeling stressed about not being able to spend time outside isn't going to help us at all. Even though going outside is very beneficial for our health and it's good to try to spend more time outside when possible, when it's not possible then there are still plenty of other things that we can focus on for supporting our health such as food, exercise, sleep, and more.

(Lori Elliott is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.)

The information in this post is not to be taken as medical advice and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.