Three amazing benefits of houseplants
The beautiful flowers and lush leaves of houseplants add beauty and comfort to our homes. Whether they’re in the bedroom, kitchen, living room or bathroom, there’s nowhere that can’t benefit from nature.
But bringing plants into your home doesn’t need to be a purely aesthetic choice. They offer plenty of science-backed health benefits as well, including:
1. Reducing stress and anxiety levels
Humans have a strong connection to nature. Outdoor activities like nature walks are proven to reduce stress and anxiety and living with indoor plants can do the same! This means that introducing nature into your home can improve your wellbeing by helping you be calmer and more content.
But it’s not just the presence of plants that improves your mental health, but the act of caring for them also.
A study found that an indoor gardening task lowered the stress response in young males compared to a computer task, which caused a spike in heart rate and blood pressure.
2. Improving focus and concentration
A small study found that young students studying with live plants in the classroom focused better than those without.
The scientists took brain scans of the participants whilste they studied and discovered that those surrounded by live plants showed improved concentration and attention compared to those with plastic plants, pictures of plants and no plants.
Although, don’t worry if you haven’t yet mastered the art of keeping plants alive, real-looking artificial plants may not have been shown to improve concentration but studies have suggested that they offer benefits for relaxation and can act as mood-boosters!
3. Improving air quality and humidity
Plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, which helps to improve the air quality and oxygenation in your home. There is also some evidence to suggest that plants scrub the air of contaminants by a process called phytoremediation.
As well as oxygen, plants release water vapour into the air, which increases humidity. This increased humidity helps improve the health of your lungs of your skin health by helping to reduce the drying effects of our heating systems.
Now you know some of the amazing benefits houseplants can bring to your life, why not activate your green fingers by bringing the outside indoors?