Can a virtual meadow or a Mind's eye stream calm hospital anxiety?

This trial tests two ways to bring nature to older adults stuck in the hospital for weeks: watching 360-degree nature videos through a virtual reality headset, or listening to audio guides that prompt them to imagine the same scenes. Both approaches use identical nature themes—meadow, stream, and mountain—but differ in how the experience reaches the person: through the senses or through imagination. The study asks whether either approach can reduce anxiety more than usual care alone, and whether the body's stress response, measured by heart rate variability, differs between the two. Participants are adults 65 and older who have been hospitalized for at least two weeks, and each person serves as their own comparison before being randomly assigned to one of the two methods.