Keeping indoor plants in your home or office can not only brighten a space–they decrease stress, remove indoor pollutants and even make us more productive.
Indoor Plants & Air Quality
Besides increasing the amount of oxygen in the air, plants also work to remove toxins from air – up to 87 percent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every 24 hours, according to NASA research. VOCs include substances like formaldehyde (present in rugs, vinyl, cigarette smoke and grocery bags), benzene and trichloroethylene (both found in man-made fibers, inks, solvents and paint).
Indoor Plants & Stress Levels
We know that spending time in nature is linked to reduced stress levels and tension relief. What’s more, in a 2008 study, Dutch researchers found that hospital patients with indoor plants in their rooms reported lower stress levels than patients without them.
Indoor Plants at the Office
According to the National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS), on average Americans spend 87 percent of their time indoors. While you can’t quite work from the middle of the woods, you can work on bringing more life into your office by using live plants.
The Dutch Product Board for Horticulture commissioned a workplace study that discovered that adding plants to office settings decreases fatigue, colds, headaches, coughs, sore throats and flu-like symptoms. In another study by the Agricultural University of Norway, sickness rates fell by more than 60 percent in offices with plants.
Furthermore, studies have found that interior “plantscaping” improves cognitive ability while raising productivity by 12 percent and creativity by 6 percent.
Plants are truly wonderful! Learn all about these health benefits in Joy McCarthy’s video below:
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