Having house plants in your home can be far more beneficial than you initially believe. While useful as a lovely decoration, the humble house plant also has many other uses. Here’s how your life can improve with some greenery in the home:
Improve air quality
Naturally, plants take in CO2 and pump out oxygen into the atmosphere. As such, having a few plants in your home can help to improve the air quality. More oxygen makes it easier for you to breathe and makes your house feel fresher.
Lower stress levels
House plants have been shown to lower stress levels in many test subjects. It’s believed that looking after the plants is very therapeutic, lowering your stress response. The mere presence of house plants is also believed to stimulate a relaxing response in your brain.
Improve your immune response
Another huge benefit of house plants is that they can improve your immune response and help you fight off illnesses. Research suggests this could be down to the increased oxygen in the air, and studies have shown that things like coughs can be heavily reduced.
Make you more focused
Struggling to focus while working from home? Plants in your workspace have been proven to sharpen your attention and focus. Again, there’s research backing this up, showing that a group of subjects were more productive when a real plant was in their presence!
Raises your mood at work
House plants don’t just help you focus while working from home, they also raise your mood and provide a sunnier outlook on life. It was found that people who work in the presence of house plants are believed to have much higher job satisfaction than those without them. In a world where you’re stuck working from home for the foreseeable future, it’s highly beneficial to have anything that can raise your mood.
Reduce noise levels
Believe it or not, but some house plants can help to reduce noise levels in your home. Are you sick and tired of hearing the traffic from outside, or the noisy neighbors always yelling? It is scientifically proven that some plants can absorb certain sound frequencies, reducing noise in your home. You need the right plants, and ones with very fleshy leaves are seen as the most effective. So, if you want a quieter environment at home, get some house plants!
Prevent allergies
This goes back to the first point on plants offering cleaner air in your home. What you don’t realize is that this has an impact on other aspects of your life. For instance, if you suffer from airborne allergies, your symptoms can be reduced by having plants in your home. The air is easier to breathe and contains fewer pollutants. It’s also found that rooms with plants have less dust than those without.
Increase air humidity
As well as improving the overall air quality, some house plants can add humidity to the equation. Spider plants are the best at this, with one study showing they increased room humidity from 20% to 30%. This makes the humidity more comfortable, reducing the impact of dry air on the body. In short, it can prevent you from getting colds, protect your skin from drying out, and once again offer some allergy relief for those suffering.
Get a better night’s sleep
The presence of plants in your bedroom can help you sleep better in a couple of ways. Firstly, the natural scents of some plants can be very relaxing – such as lavender. Secondly, as mentioned previously, plants are shown to help reduce your stress levels. When this happens, it is much easier for you to fall asleep quicker, usually going into a deeper slumber as well. Therefore, if you struggle to sleep at night, some plants in your house could be a magical solution.
Improve your video meetings
One of the worst parts of working from home is dealing with all the Zoom calls and video meetings. Mainly, you struggle to make yourself look professional in a home environment, worrying you give off a bad image. Well, some house plants in the backdrop of your videos will make you look so much better. It provides a more professional edge, improving all of your online meetings and conferences.
The bottom line is that house plants go above and beyond what you initially expect of them. Yes, they improve the interior appeal of your home, but you can clearly see that their impact goes way beyond this. If you want to experience the benefits listed above, then get yourself some house plants today.