Benefits of Having Indoor Plants

Do you want to be happier, more concentrated and creative, less stressed, and less sick???? I’m with you in saying HECK YES!!! Well here’s a bit of a secret… investing in houseplants can make this come true for you! There are tons of studies that prove the benefits of indoor plants, so today I wanted to tell you exactly what these studies have proven, and how a houseplant can benefit you today!

**Note: This post contains affiliate links, which if purchased, I will receive a portion of the profits at no extra cost to you. This helps me to keep providing you with this awesome information!**

Be happier!

Studies have shown that interior plants can make us happier people! The Journal of Environmental Psychology has shown that flowering plants in particular can decrease stress levels.

Also, a University of Texas study has shown that spending more time around plants can make us help others more often, as well as be more caring and empathetic towards others. Pretty cool, right?!

Have greater concentration!

The Royal College of Agriculture in England did a study that showed a 70% increase in attentiveness between classrooms that contained plants versus those that did not.

This is huge!!!

There was also a higher attendance rate in these classrooms as well.

This study was also backed by the American Horticultural Therapy Association, who also found that interior plants can help us to concentrate better. They were also found to increase creativity levels (mostly through certain leaf colors and patterns).

Be healthier!

Now this is the biggest impact that plants can have in your home or workplace…

To start off, houseplants have been found to decrease indoor toxin levels, to increase oxygen levels, and to increase humidity levels…

Indoor toxins aren’t a good thing. This is because they increase your chances for…

• Stroke (34%)
• Ischemic heart disease (26%)
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (22%)
• Child Respiratory infections (12%)
• Lung cancer (6%)

So by decreasing the amount of indoor toxins, you can decrease your chances of stroke, heart disease, lung disease, child respiratory infections, and lung cancer!

Washington State University also found that interior plants decrease the amount of dust in the air by 20%!

And did you know, indoor plants remove up to 87% of toxins every 24 hours! (according to a study done by NASA). See the list of best indoor air cleaners here.

So, not only do interior plants remove toxins, but they also increase the amount of oxygen (greatly reducing headaches and causing better sleeping conditions), as well as increase indoor humidity levels. Especially in the winter!

Increasing the humidity will then decrease the occurrence of dry skin, colds, sore throats, and dry coughs (Agricultural University of Norway).

The Agricultural University of Norway also looked at office conditions and found that offices with interior plants had lower sickness rates by up to 60%!

That’s a lot of healthier people!

Or maybe they were just more willing to go to work when they had beautiful plants surrounding them?!

I hope that what you learn from this article is that despite the added time that houseplants require, the benefits still greatly outweigh any added maintenance.

You can also check out my list of easy, low maintenance plants, or my list of plants for dark spaces if you’re worried about keeping them alive…

So choose to be happier and healthier, both in mind and body, and bring home a houseplant today!

Happy Digging!

Sources used:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/147470490500300109

http://www.healthline.com/health/importance-plants-home#Overview1

https://www.bayeradvanced.com/articles/5-benefits-of-houseplants

http://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/houseplants/health-benefits-of-houseplants-pictures

http://public.wsu.edu/~lohr/hih/air/