6 Bedroom Plants That Help You Sleep Better

Indoor plants, apart from building a human-environment rapport, also enhance the air quality and promote physical and psychological well-being. Doesn’t that sound like a shortcut to a healthy and content life? According to a study conducted on 24 men, interaction with indoor plants reduced psychological and physiological stress, and in their findings, they attributed this success to the suppression of the autonomic nervous system and decreased systolic blood pressure (1).

The very fact that there’s another living thing blooming and blossoming right in front of you is a joy in itself, and when you know you have been nurturing it all this while, it is an accomplishment beyond imagination. There are a plethora of things indoor plants do to you, and enhancing your sleep quality is just one among them. If you have tried everything from a nutritious diet to exhausting exercises and popping pills but are still looking for something that can just glide you smoothly into a comforting slumber, try growing any of these (or ALL of these) plants in your bedroom.

1. Aloe Vera

Aloe vera is one of the most widely grown indoor plants, thanks to its various benefits. One of the additional benefits is to provide an ambient environment for better sleep. According to NASA, carbon dioxide is one of the environmental factors that might disrupt sound sleep (2). Aloe vera is a plant that emits oxygen at night, and this is one of the reasons it improves the sleep quality. You could be eating the right food and sweating it out efficiently, but if the environment in which you sleep is not appropriate, all the efforts could be futile, and you will continue to toss and turn all night long. While you continue to eat right and work out sufficiently, aloe can do the rest for you.

 2. Jasmine

Jasmine flowers have always been associated with the distinctive scent that they emit. The summer evening and the blooming jasmine flowers, coyly dancing away in the warm evening breeze, is a scene that, in itself, is very calming and pleasing to the senses. That’s the aesthetics part of it. Speaking of the therapeutic effects jasmine has, it has been empirically proven that jasmine essential oil can stimulate the nervous system and uplift your mood (3). If you are suffering from bouts of apathy, depression, and anxiety, consider growing this plant in your bedroom. It not only improves your mood but also fills your room with the fragrance, and you will doze off within no time. This will ensure increased vigor and psychological readiness during the day and will gradually bring harmony in your sleep cycles and body rhythms to make you sleep better at night.

3. Bamboo Palm

We are all aware of outdoor pollution because it is visible, sometimes audible, and often something that we can smell. But there’s this indoor pollution that’s even more dangerous because one, we are always exposed to it, and two, we aren’t even aware of it. This is where indoor plants come into the scene. One of the researches conducted by NASA says that formaldehyde is one of the potent indoor pollutants, and bamboo palm effectively absorbs most of this formaldehyde (4). An important factor that you should keep in mind when it comes to indoor plants is light. Not all plants grow in these environmental conditions. Bamboo palm, however, grows even in the absence of light or rather in the light that isn’t intense. This makes it easy to grow indoors.

4. Lemon Balm

Lemon balm hails from the mint family and even looks like mint. Lemon balm is popular for its use in aromatherapy. The oils in the leaves are extracted and used as massage oils as well as for aroma baths. The smell of the oil minimizes psychological problems like stress, anxiety, panic, depression, and more importantly, insomnia. Also, lemon balm leaves can be used to steep an aromatic herbal tea that is known to promote better sleep. Apart from growing these plants indoors, take a few leaves and crush them with your hands to extract the oils. Keep inhaling these oils from your palm. This will relax you instantly and help you sleep uninterrupted all through the night.

 5. Lavender

It could become tricky to grow lavender indoors, though the results are worth the effort. Try choosing smaller lavender plants that can acclimatize themselves to growing indoors. Also, place the plant where there is maximum sunlight. In case you feel the plant isn’t getting enough sunlight, you could use artificial high output fluorescent light as an alternative. The appealing blue bloom of this plant is a visual treat, and the smell this plant fills the room with efficiently calms you down. Lavender is another plant that is widely used in aromatherapy for its calming property. It also relaxes your muscles and eases stress. An aching body doesn’t allow you to sleep properly. A lavender plant in your bedroom will look after all those aches. It will aid in combatting that physical and psychological stress that is stopping you from having a good night’s sleep.

6. Golden Pothos

Like bamboo palm, even golden pothos helps in absorbing excess formaldehyde in your room. Long-term inhalation of formaldehyde can cause complications like irritation in the nose and throat, nausea, and burning sensation in the eyes. However, these hazards are caused only when formaldehyde is present in excessive amounts. Indoor smoking habits and usage of certain harmful cosmetics are a few reasons that could cause an increase in this indoor pollutant. Planting golden pothos can reduce the concentration of this pollutant and will aid in improving the indoor air quality. This is one of the major factors contributing to better sleep. Caring for these plants is relatively easy because these plants can tolerate low levels of light and don’t need too much of watering. However, be careful if there are children or pets in your house as ingesting the poisonous leaves of this plant could be lethal.

So, these are the 6 plants that easily grow indoors and can tolerate quite a bit of neglect and low light conditions. Apart from the fact that caring for these plants isn’t very difficult, which is a bonus for those who ain’t blessed with the green thumb, they also bestow you with a calm and relaxed environment. Pot them all today and forget sleepless nights forever. Do you grow any other indoor plants that help you sleep better? Comment below and let me know.

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Rachana C

Twenty seventeen says Rachana Chandrasekhar is a content writer at IncNut Digital. Of course, twenty twelve thought she'd be a vegetable vendor in an Italian countryside. Don't be too overwhelmed if twenty twenty finds her basking in the raptures of driving the fastest car on some obscure racing course.

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