As more time is spent inside, creating an environment of comfort and productivity indoors has become a significant hurdle. The extra stressors of lifestyle changes and online work are some of the new barriers for staying motivated. Optimizing workspaces within the home has become especially important, as even small changes can reduce the stress and anxiety that may be exacerbated by an unfriendly environment. In searching for ways to breathe a bit easier within the home or workplace, researchers have identified one particular element that can produce both physiological and psychological improvements: plants.
Researchers suggested having plants within sight contributed to overall reduced stress, speaking to the potential mental health benefits of these unique green colleagues in moments of high pressure or fatigue.
Houseplants have long been symbols of the idyllic work area, often seen plastered on home improvement magazines and social media profiles. However, their visual benefits are only a small part of what makes plants welcome roommates. According to a 2015 study about indoor plants published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology by Lee et al, indoor plants have been shown to improve job satisfaction, mood, and cognitive health, helping resist chronic stress and reducing the potential to exacerbate diseases.
As such, a source of comfort and relaxation is incredibly necessary for ensuring balance within a lifestyle that can become blurred by days of online work.
Plants truly show their worth during moments of stress. Multiple studies have indicated an ease in both physical and mental stress due to the presence of an indoor plant. A 2019 study in Japan investigated changes in these two manifestations of stress before and after placing a plant on workers’ desks. Sixty-three office workers were directed to take a three-minute rest while sitting at their desks when they felt fatigued. Participants were able to see and care for a small plant of their choice and were compared to participants who sat without plants. When considering the different interactions with plants and their effect on mitigating stress in the workplace, researchers saw that intentionally gazing at the plant was an interaction office workers could “do quickly and easily at their desks.” The study calculated a significant decrease in anxiety post-intervention. Researchers suggested having plants within sight contributed to overall reduced stress, speaking to the potential mental health benefits of these unique green colleagues in moments of high pressure or fatigue.
As helpful enhancing elements in hospitals, plants can turn a bedroom into a healing space.
With the growing fatigue brought about by technology and overstimulation, interacting with indoor plants has been seen to produce a soothing effect on the senses. Research has shown plants can suppress the sympathetic nervous system and blood pressure while promoting feelings of comfort. This has become increasingly significant as researchers study the effectiveness of a natural environment on subduing the stress of technology usage. Interacting with a plant, such as transplanting or tending to it, lowers these physiological measures of stress and provides a needed break from the mental involvement of a computer task. With constant internet usage becoming even more prominent for many across the country during the pandemic, the extra strain and discomfort from computer work are a part of daily life across the United States. As such, a source of comfort and relaxation is incredibly necessary for ensuring balance within a lifestyle that can become blurred by days of online work. Keeping an indoor plant is one way to inspire breaks, even just by taking moments to tend to it.
The contribution plants have to overall experience within a room and the feelings they produce are powerful in times of worry and as a result can produce real physiological benefits
In addition to their stress-reduction benefits, plants may aid in surgery recovery simply by being in the room. A study on patients recovering from a hemorrhoidectomy, a surgery to remove hemorrhoids, compared psychological and physiological measures between those given live plants for their rooms and those without live plants during their postoperative recovery period. Incredibly, looking at plants during recovery created a positive attitude about health outcomes of the patients. Plants and flowers produced significantly more positive physiological responses such as “lower blood pressure and lower ratings of pain, anxiety, and fatigue” than that of patients without plants. Patients with plants also reported more satisfaction with their rooms, noting that the plants made the environment brighter, decreased stress, and gave positive impressions of the hospital workers’ care for them. Plants showed to have therapeutic value in the hospital environment as a “noninvasive, inexpensive, and effective complementary medicine for surgical patients.” As helpful enhancing elements in hospitals, plants can turn a bedroom into a healing space. Though they are not a cure on their own, the contribution plants have to overall experience within a room and the feelings they produce are powerful in times of worry and as a result can produce real physiological benefits, which gives every reason to invite an indoor plant into the home, office, hospital, and beyond.
Image Source: Pixabay
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