Plants are awesome. There is no denying the mood enhancing power of an amazing garden or forest. Even indoor plants have magical powers to improve your mood but that is not the only benefit of keeping house plants.
House plants have a proven ability to improve air quality, sleep, focus and mental health. They also lower background noise, help prevent illnesses, reduce stress and help with healing from physical ailments.
Americans spend 93 percent of their time indoors. Especially in the cold rainy months (which is several months of the year in the Pacific Northwest). Getting out into nature is especially helpful during those times for overall health but for those people that just don’t make that happen there is another option – house plants.
There are so many amazing health benefits of living with and caring for plants in your home. You don’t need to have a large house with a green room to be able to do this either. I am talking about every day normal house plants like a good old peace lily. Keep reading to find out how your overall health can improve because of living with plants.
House Plants Improve Air Quality
Since we spend most of our time indoors it is important to think about the quality of air indoors. Most things we bring into our home that are newly produced will off-gas for a long period of time. For example, new clothes purchased from a large chain store, furniture, tech gadgets, carpets, appliances, toys and so on. That means that these items are slowly polluting the air.
According to “The Perks of Being a Plant Lover“, indoor air pollution can increase your risk of stroke by 34%, ischemic heart disease by 26%, COPD by 22% lung cancer by 6% and respiratory infections in children by 12%.
House plants have been studied for years. If you look up the benefits of house plants, you are likely to find references to a very famous study “Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement” completed by Bill Wolverton from NASA back in 1989. He wanted to find out if having plants on a spaceship could remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air.
The problem he was trying to solve was specific to living in a sealed spaceship for a long period of time. VOCs cannot be filtered out and they would build up in the air during space travel. So they tested different types of plants as well as had control test with pots containing soil alone.
The results of that study showed that “plants can play a major role in removal of organic chemicals from indoor air.” The VOCs they tested were:
| source – how it gets into the home | short term exposure symptoms | |
| Trichloroethylene | paints, varnishes, ahesives, printing inks | headaches, nausea, drowisness, coma |
| Formaldehyde | wax paper, paper bags, particle board, plywood panelling, synthetic fabrics, paper towels, napkins | irritation to nose, mouth and throat, swelling of larynx and lungs |
| Benzene | plastics, synthetic fibres, rubber lubricants, drugs, pesticides, glue, paint, vehicle exhausts, furniture wax | eye irritation, drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, confusion, unconsciousness |
| Xylene | printing, rubber, leather, paint, tobacco smoke, vehicle exhaust | irritation to mouth and throat, dizziness, headache, confusion, heart problems, liver and kidney damage, coma |
| Ammonia | window cleaners, floor waxes, fertilizers, smelling salts | eye irritation, coughing and sore throats |
Wolverton later returned to this study and did the test again with 195 new studies on whether houseplants can filter the air. They identified the plants that were most efficient in removing VOCs. However, for a normal household that has larger rooms than the sealed spacecraft or the small containers the tests were performed in, it was found that one plant in a large room had very little effect.
But the science shows that house plants do remove the above VOCs but only in very small amounts. Thus reducing the risk of headaches commonly caused by benzene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde.
For rooms that are filled with plants, it was found that there are 50 % fewer molds and bacteria in the air. The toxins are remove from the air and moved into the root where it can be used as food or destroyed.
As houses are becoming more energy efficient, they are sealed up much more. This is a problem for people suffering from allergies because the items in the house that contain VOCs build up and are not filtered out.
There are several hypoallergenic houseplants that can be used to help filter these VOCs (if only a small amount if the ratio of room size to number of plants is small).
Not only are plants removing VOCs from the air (in small amounts) but of course they are removing the CO2 that people exhale and they increase oxygen levels.
And one final thing to mention on the topic of improved air quality: plants are natural humidifiers. During photosynthetic and respiratory processes, moisture vapor is released by the plant which increased humidity of the air around them. About 97% of the water they take in is released. With multiple plants together in a room, the overall humidity can increase which is helpful for decreasing dry skin, preventing colds and sore throats.
House Plants Can Lower Background Noise
Plants have been used in many office spaces to lower background noise and improve acoustics. Why would this be important in a home? Well, think about the sources of unwanted noise in a house – television in another room, video games, running appliances, outside traffic, whiny kids!
Having enough plants in your home can actually decrease this background noise making it more relaxing. Parts of plants like the wood, stems and leaves can absorb sound. The more surface area the better. When sound hits a plant, it is not reflected the way it would be off the wall. Instead the plant will vibrate with the noise and it will be transformed into other forms of energy.
Plants can also reduce the echo of a room with solid floors and walls.
It has been found that plants that help with sounds the most are large, healthy and leafy. They should be arranged as a group and they work better if they are placed along a wall rather than in the middle of the room.
House Plants Help To Reduce Stress
A study on plants in an office setting was done by Dr. Virginia Lohr of Washington State University. She created two identical offices with 27 computer workstations at each. She created a program to measure productivity and induce stress on the subjects. Physical measurements were taken like blood pressure and pulse. The only difference between the two offices were that one of them had clusters of plants in locations that would be visible by every subject.
The results were an increase in attentiveness after the tasks and an increase in reaction time of 12% faster of the workers in the office with the plants.
House Plants Increase Productivity
An interesting study of 250 office workers showed that not only did their productivity increase but the perception of the work environment also increased. This study took place in the Winterswijk Tax Office in the Netherlands.
In this study, two groups of workers in comparable areas of the same building were closely monitored. Before the test started, both areas scored low for air quality and equipment. In turn, the rate of health problems, specifically eye, throat and nose complaints, were higher than average.
Plants were introduced to one of the two groups and after a period of time the test group with plants rated higher for the factors of wellbeing. They also demonstrated higher productivity and decreased loss of concentration.
House Plants Help You Sleep Better
If you haven’t considered keeping plants in your bedroom maybe you should. There are a few different benefits of plants for helping people sleep.
As mentioned previously, plants improve the humidity of a room. This is especially important in a bedroom and can prevent dry throat and nose. This also helps with immunity to viruses, bacteria and allergens.
Plants have proven to decrease blood pressure and anxiety helping people sleep easier.
Many plants have a fragrance that calms nerves and can help you sleep. Lavender, jasmine and gardenia are known for their nerve calming smells.
In general, plants can improve your mood. Sounds like a great way to set yourself up for a good night sleep.
House Plants Improve Your Focus
Putting plants in the office makes staff work harder and improves job satisfaction. If you have a home office, plants would benefit your work there.
House Plants Speed Up Healing
Simply viewing plants can have the benefit of helping people heal from a surgical procedure. A study done at Kansas State University “Ornamental indoor plants in hospital rooms enhanced health outcomes of patients recovering from surgery” demonstrated this help with recovery.
In this study, 90 patients were monitored after each had a hemorrhoidectomy. Pateints were randomly selected to stay in a postoperative room that had a plant and half did not have a plant.
They found that there was a positive health outcome for those that were in a room with the plant. Their blood pressure was lower, they had lower ratings of pain, anxiety and fatigue. The patients with plants had a higher satisfaction of their room and many added a comment stating the plants brightened up their rooms.
There are other plants with healing powers too! Aloe Vera has anti-inflammatory healing powers. If you apply the gel from a piece of aloe to your skin it can heal a wound or a burn. Many herbs can be grown indoors and ingested to promote physical health.
House Plants Prevent Illnesses
Many plants are great at boosting your immune system and preventing illness. For example garlic or ginger are known to improve your immunity but these are not often grown inside a house. There are ways for house plants to help prevent illnesses too.
House plants can prevent illnesses by improving the humidity in the room. It was measured that having house plants can reduce coughs by up to 37%. They are also known to reduce sick days by a fifth.
When humidity in a room reaches 40% or higher, it can greatly reduce the infectivity of the flu virus or other airborne viruses. Plants can increase the humidity in your room through transpiration. That is when they release water vapor that they pulled out of the soil and put in the air. If you have more plants or bigger plants you can increase the amount humidity of your air.
You Can Eat House Plants!
Of course many plants are super healthy to eat. Some of these can be part of your house plant community.
You might like to grow basil in a pot in your kitchen. It is both an anti-inflammatory and an antiviral. You can add it to salads, pasta or even smoothies to boost your immune system. You can even crush a few leaves to apply to mosquito bites to relieve itching.
Rosemary is a wonderful indoor house plant because you can really appreciate the smell of it inside as opposed to in a garden. If it is inside your home, it is very easy to add to your meals. Rosemary can also be made into a hair rinse to treat oily hair.
House Plants Improve Mental Health
You may have heard of forest bathing, the ancient Japanese method of forest therapy. The benefit of forest bathing include improved problem solving, creativity and overall well-being. The same can be said of surrounding yourself by indoor plants and taking the time to simply spend time with them.
Another mental health benefit of living with plants is fewer symptoms of dementia. A study of dementia patients was done where they were given activities to landscape and garden. It was found that their cognitive abilities improved and their aggressive behavior decreased.
Horticultural therapy has been used to treat people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety. This is typically done outdoors but in some cases can be taken indoors. The process of interacting with plants can improve your well being indoors or out.
A recent trend with millennials has found them taking up gardening. Out of the 6 million Americans that started gardening in 2016, 5 million of them are between the ages of 18 and 34. Since many of these people are still renting (2/3 of millennials are renters), indoor plants sales have seen a great increase.
Once of the reasons to explain this trend is that millenials are not quite ready for the responsibility of pets or kids so taking care of an indoor nursery is a good start.
Millenials have reported a greater increase in stress levels than any other generation in a recent study. The stress is mostly due to work-related issues. Caring for plants is a healthy way for them to de-stress.
80% of the millennials surveyed said that taking care of plants has caused them to start taking better care of themselves. The time taken to care for plants has shown to be enough for self reflection and an instigator to slow down.
It also helps that instagram hashtags like #plantsofinstagram #urbanjungle and #plantlife encourage people to want to take care of their green kids.
In contrast, several millennials interviewed commented on the fact that taking care of plants was a nice escape from screens and it felt good to take care of something outside of their own self.
Nurturing plants, even for a small amount of time, forces people to focus on something that is not an online task or a social media feed that ultimately makes them feel bad.
Many people that have plants, refer the them as if they are a member of the family. They even refer to their plants as their babies. This has commenced a trend of calling people plant parents. It helps to create a habit of thinking of other living things and what they need to survive.
As long as people don’t get stressed about keeping a plant alive (some are more difficult to care for than others), plants can foster a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Plants can bring a lot of joy into daily life. Especially the older plants that have been around for generations. Some types of plants can propagate into baby plants that can be used to grow an indoor garden or be given away.
To Sum It All Up
If you’ve scrolled all the way down here you might just want the quick notes about the main benefits that house plants can bring into your life.
- plants remove VOCs and add oxygen to the air, thereby improving the air quality of your home (it is debatable as to the amount that this occurs with only a few plants in a large room)
- plants can reduce the amount of background noice making a more serene environment
- plants can reduce stress
- plants in a home office can increase productivity and focus
- plants in your bedroom can help you sleep better with specific fragrances, improved humidity and mood altering visual appeal
- plants can speed up recovery after a surgery or illness
- plants can help boost your immunity and prevent illnesses
- plants are very nutritious and can boost immunity
- plants can improve your mental health by helping to get you off your screen, take a break from daily stresses and give you a slower pace and something else to take care of
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