Choosing the right plant for your bedroom can have a significant impact on your quality of sleep and overall well-being. While many people think of plants mainly as decorative elements, they actually offer a variety of health benefits that are particularly important in bedrooms. From improving air quality to promoting a more peaceful night's sleep, plants can naturally support your night's rest.
In this post, we explore which plants are best suited to the bedroom, how they purify the air and what additional benefits they can provide for your health and well-being. Let's discover together how a little greenery in your bedroom can make a big difference.
Indoor plants influence the indoor climate
Materials such as paint, flooring or furniture can emit pollutants that enter our lungs via the air we breathe and thus damage our health. Of course, ventilation helps to remove the pollutants.
However, plants can also help us to purify the air. Some plant species are particularly useful here, as they absorb toxins such as benzene, carcinogenic formaldehyde or trichloroethylene through their leaves. They neutralize the pollutants in their cells and convert them into harmless components.
But it's not just the filter function that improves the indoor air. Thanks to photosynthesis, they convert the carbon dioxide (CO₂) contained in the room air into oxygen and biomass. Plants are also subject to a day-night rhythm. This is because they can only "produce" oxygen in sunlight. This is why the air-improving processes come to a standstill at night.
Many plants even emit CO₂ at night. For years, this led to the assumption that plants were unsuitable for the bedroom. But plants are also very healthy in the bedroom! If you choose the right green plant. This is because some representatives require very little oxygen, so they are no competition for us. What's more, some species even release oxygen at night. These are mostly succulent varieties.
We have received three plants suitable for the bedroom from our partner Feey - the online shop for houseplants from our partner: Dragon tree, arching hemp and green lily. We present the air fresheners in more detail in our air-Q Lab: first of all the bow hemp. We will show the other plant tests and their results in separate articles.
A brief introduction to the low-maintenance bow hemp
Bow hemp is extremely easy to care for - almost indestructible. The whimsical-looking trendy plant with its upward-growing, curled shoots also produces oxygen at night and removes pollutants from the air. It is also said to be good for headaches and high blood pressure. The uncomplicated bow hemp likes light, but also tolerates low-light and cooler spots. Depending on how bright the location is, the plant's color changes, sometimes showing lighter, sometimes darker shades.
Indoor plant bow hemp in the air-Q Lab: Our test results
In our test, we investigated how the hemp bow affects the air quality. To do this, we placed the houseplant together with our air measuring device in an airtight, transparent box about 50 cm high.
We placed this box in the morning in our conference room near a window so that the plant received sunlight and was able to photosynthesize. Our experiment lasted the entire day and night until the next morning. During the 24 hours, the air-Q measured the air components and recorded their development. The following measured variables were examined:
At the beginning of our test, all readings are at a normal level. In the morning, the solar radiation increased and the temperature rose significantly. Around 12 noon, the highest temperature of the day was reached at almost 22 degrees. After that, the temperature dropped constantly and levelled off at slightly below 20 degrees during the night hours between 24 and six o'clock. The average temperature in our test box was 20.36 degrees.
The humidity values also increased in the morning. The absolute humidity also peaked around midday with a first high of just under 15 mg/m³. This value dropped briefly in the early afternoon, then rose again in the evening to reach its second peak of over 15.3 mg/m³ around three o'clock at night. The average absolute humidity was 15.07 mg/m³.
The experiment also shows that the amount of carbon dioxide in the box increases constantly during the day. Here, maximum values of almost 560 ppm (parts per million) are measured around 6 pm. At night, however, the value dropped significantly. By three o'clock, the carbon dioxide level had already dropped to below 430 ppm. We assume that this is a clear indication that the plant converts less oxygen at night and is therefore well suited for the bedroom.
The last value we observed was the VOC concentration. In our test, this was initially 140 ppb and increased significantly until midday. In two peaks, maximum values of about 170 ppb were measured and, after a short drop, 160 ppb. From the afternoon onwards, however, the values dropped. During the night, the VOC concentration was then almost halved. Accordingly, our results confirm the widespread characterisation that bow hemp has a strong air-purifying effect. We are curious to see what test results the other indoor plants will produce in terms of VOC values.
Our results in fast forward are available in our video.
Conclusion
Houseplants such as the bow hemp ensure better air - especially by positively influencing the proportion of absolute humidity. In addition, our test confirms a significant reduction of pollutants in the indoor air. Thus, the plant demonstrably ensures better air quality and brings a green freshness kick into the room.
(Contributed image: Prostock Studio from Getty Images/ Canva edit)
