Plants are more than just decorations in houses and offices. Aside from playing a role in room aesthetics, plants also have surprising benefits to humans.

Due to rapid urbanization in many parts of the world, it is natural for people, especially those dwelling in cities, to crave for mother nature. Because of this, nature parks are built and lots of homes grow gardens. You may argue that putting a poster depicting nature on your walls or having fascinating images of mountains and falls as your device wallpaper should be enough. But having the real deal, though in a small scale, creates a far greater impact than just satisfying your eyes.

If you don’t have a single plant in your room yet, then you should start having one, as you’re about to read some of the advantages of having them in your household and workplaces.

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

It may not be obvious but having a plant or two on your desk or around it helps you get more of the work done. In a study lead by Tina Bringslimark from the American Society of Horticultural Science, seeing plants around while working makes a person more productive. In fact, the more plants around, the higher the production rate will be. Though plants do not take the sole credit for this development, since a lot of factors may affect a person’s state of being productive, it can’t be denied that it still makes you want to finish more of those paper works. I won’t be surprised if you will start having them on your desk soon but just be sure that you will still have ample space for your office stuff.

RECOVERY FROM EXHAUSTION

With a lot of deadlines to meet, exhaustion becomes a common thing especially to those who belong to the workforce. In fact, according to a survey, 76% of workers are tired during weekdays, while 15% of them are guilty for sleeping during office hours once a week. In order to cope with this, you may try decorating your space with some plants. Based on a study from Japan, plants help in fatigue recovery. Humans are instinctively drawn to anything that is naturally beautiful. So when a person is exhausted and sees a plant, the attention is shifted unintentionally, since plants give a delightful feeling to the viewer. If you think your job gives you a lot of stress and is draining a huge amount of your energy lately, you already know what to do.

INCREASED PAIN TOLERANCE

No, you’re not going to put flowers on your wounds, but there is truth to this idea. You have probably heard of Ulrich’s findings in his studies that talks about how patients improve quickly when seeing nature than those who just see a stone wall. Apparently, a more recent experiment from the International Society of Horticultural Science that was conducted to female students gave a conclusion that there is improvement regarding tolerance to pain when plants are present in a room. What’s more interesting is that flowering plants give a more positive outcome. Results show that students who were in rooms with flowering plants and placed their hands in zero degrees Celsius within a base line of 5 minutes and a recovery period of the same time frame, can tolerate the pain longer than those in rooms with no plants and those in rooms with non-flowering plants. These findings will be a great help for the fast recovery of patients in many hospitals. So the next time you plan to visit an injured friend, bringing some flowers will be a great idea aside from gifting them a basket full of fruits.

BETTER SLEEP

Having troubles with your sleep lately? House plants can be the solution to this problem of yours. A research from the University of Alberta suggests that high oxygen levels stimulates the brain to stay in a state of deep sleep. But you should not be too quick in filling your room with a lot of them. Though plants produce tons of oxygen during the day, they breathe like animals at night. This means that just like us humans, plants take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, but not in harmful amounts, during these hours except for some types. There are many examples of plants that give off oxygen at night so you don’t have to worry about that. Just try to do a bit of research and you’re good to go. But if you feel lazy searching for examples, you may start by having succulents or orchids in your sanctuary.

IMMUNE SYSTEM BOOST

Aside from giving us oxygen to breathe, plants are also there to get rid of toxic chemicals from the air. One study from NASA says that 87% of harmful chemicals in the air are removed by plants within a day. These toxins are present in almost everything and anywhere especially in urban areas. So if you want to avoid getting sick quickly because of these chemicals, having plants in your home may help, although you need to bare in mind that your immunity does not entirely depend in plants since a lot of factors affect this aspect. But if you’re sickly and would like to take extra measures to keep health troubles at bay, having them in your room will surely help.

Nature provides everything essential to human life. In other words, we cannot live without it. There are still so many benefits that plants give to humans that our race should seriously think about including them in the evolution of our societies more than the pride and money that come along with it. If these organisms already create a positive impact to each individual, how much more to the whole of humanity’s future?

Do you want to start having plants at home? What types do you have in mind? Tell us in the comments below.