Researchers say that the immersive VR could help schools and universities tackle stress and exam anxiety.
By Lisa Jones (Press and Research Communications Manager), Published
A seven-minute virtual reality (VR) intervention can help students feel calmer, less anxious and better able to cope with academic pressure, according to new research from City St George's.
The findings, published in Scientific Reports, come at a time when schools and universities across the UK seek new approaches to support student wellbeing amid growing concerns about stress, anxiety and overwhelm among young people.
A recent Teacher Tapp survey of more than 5,700 teachers found that 56% had seen mental health issues linked to exam anxiety among Year 11 pupils this academic year, while 48% reported students missing school because of exam anxiety. More than half (54%) said alternative exam arrangements had been needed due to anxiety, and 17% reported students being withdrawn from GCSE exams altogether because of anxiety.
In England alone, the number of University students with a mental health condition has almost quadrupled in the decade to 2023/24, while 57% of respondents in a 2022 Student Minds mental health charity survey self-reported a mental health issue. This VR experience could offer a transformational solution to combat this growing problem.
Researchers evaluated an immersive seven-minute VR wellbeing programme developed by health technology company Phase Space and co-created with students to help manage exam stress. The experience combines established stress-management techniques, including breathing exercises, visualisation and positive coping strategies, with immersive audio and visual effects designed to create a sense of calm and focus.
The trial recruited 131 healthcare students from City St George’s. Participants were randomly assigned to either use a VR headset (67 students) or to view the same content on a smartphone (64 students) over five consecutive days.
Before and after each session, students were asked to report how calm, stressed, and anxious they felt. Researchers also measured their perceived stress, wellbeing and depressive symptoms at the start of the study and at follow-up two weeks later using established mental health questionnaires commonly used in psychiatry research and clinical settings.
Both groups reported benefits, but students using VR experienced significantly greater immediate reductions in stress and anxiety and greater increases in calmness and happiness. Students who completed the VR intervention continued to report reduced levels of perceived stress at the two-week follow-up, suggesting the benefits extended beyond the immediate sessions.
Students in the VR headset group felt more ‘immersed’ and there were no reports of cybersickness.
Qualitative analysis provided further insight into how students experienced the intervention. Almost nine in ten students using VR (89%) said it had made a real difference to how they felt, compared with 34% of students who watched the same content on a smartphone.
Students described the sessions as helping them move quickly from feeling stressed and overwhelmed to feeling calmer, more grounded and better able to focus on their studies. Many reported a greater sense of control and confidence, while others said the experience encouraged them to build self-care and reflection into busy periods of revision.
Some students also reported broader benefits beyond the sessions themselves, including improved sleep, increased productivity and feeling more able to manage academic pressures. Researchers found that students viewed the seven-minute sessions not as time away from studying, but as a purposeful reset that helped them return to their work feeling more focused and capable.
Dr Aileen O'Brien, lead study author and Reader in Psychiatry from City St George’s School of Health & Medical Sciences, said:
"Young people need more than crisis support. They need practical, evidence-based tools that help them manage pressure before it becomes overwhelming."
"Our findings show that this immersive VR could become an important part of a wellbeing toolkit for the education sector - offering a scalable approach that students used and genuinely valued."
Zillah Watson, Co-founder and CEO of Phase Space, added:
“From the beginning, students told us they didn't want another wellbeing resource that felt like homework. They wanted something that could help them switch off from the noise and pressure around them and feel better quickly."
"They talked about feeling more grounded, more confident and more in control, and some even reported benefits that extended beyond the sessions themselves, including better sleep and improved focus. That's incredibly encouraging as we work with schools to support young people throughout the academic year."
The trial and content creation were funded by UKRI Innovate UK as part of the Mindset programme.