Improve your night’s rest and upgrade the appeal of your bedroom with these houseplants for better sleep. Before investing your next paycheck in a top-of-the-line mattress, consider adding indoor plants that will not only improve the air quality of your sleep but also enhance relaxation.
Some plants even help reduce cortisol levels, which will help you relax into a restful sleep and could aid in maintaining or even losing weight. In addition, better air quality has a host of benefits besides helping you sleep, including improving your overall health and mood while beautifying your home.
Houseplants to Help You Sleep At Night
1. Lavender
Lavender is a sleep-enhancing plant most people are familiar with. Or at least, it’s the one they’ve heard of. It’s featured in candles, sachets, oils, and lotions marketed for its calming benefits. Few people, however, consider adding the plant itself to their bedrooms. It’s equally effective at lowering heart rate and blood pressure.
This low-maintenance plant likes sunlight, so keep it near a bright window and water infrequently. Overwatering is one of the easiest ways to kill your lavender. If you can keep it alive, the plant will outlast any fragranced product you could use instead.
2. Aloe Vera
The Aloe Vera plant is well-known for its curative benefits. While most people associate aloe vera more with skincare than bedtime remedies, long being used for sunburns, minor scrapes, and lacerations, but the plant also works as a sleep aid.
Like many houseplants, aloe vera cleans the air. It produces oxygen, neutralizes carbon dioxide, and removes hazardous chemicals and toxins from the air. However, aloe vera differs from other plants because it lets out oxygen at night, making your sleeping environment more pleasant and healthier.
Like lavender, aloe vera is low maintenance and prefers sunlight, but it can manage with only limited doses. And because it is a succulent, its need for water is minimal.
3. Peace Lily
Peace lilies are helpful plants not just for cleaning the air but also for humidifying it. These plants keep dry rooms moist, which can help ease asthma and dry coughs that might otherwise keep a person awake at night.
They also remove formaldehyde and benzene from the air, reducing the chemicals you breathe at night making sleeping easier. If nothing else, the peace lily plant will put your mind at ease, creating a more restful environment.
Peace lilies require regular watering but little else in terms of care. They do best with indirect light and can withstand dry spells.
If you notice your plant drooping, water reasonably heavily, and it should revive. Otherwise, water only minimally when the soil is dry beyond the top two inches.
4. Valerian
The scent of Valerian is a calming agent that is used not only to treat insomnia but also anxiety. The plant produces white, red, or pink flowers with a delicate vanilla fragrance that calms and soothes the senses. In fact, This plant is so effective that the root is often used in sedatives.
The Valerian is slightly more high-maintenance than its peers. You can keep it in a bedroom, but it requires at least 6 hours a day of sunlight to thrive.
So perch the Valerian plant on a sunny ledge. It also needs a lot of water and nutrient-rich soil.
5. Jasmine
Jasmine is a sweet, intoxicating fragrance that not only helps you fall asleep but also creates a sense of calm. These plants will help you relax into sleep and wake up calmer and more alert.
Most commonly, jasmine produces white flowers, but there are also yellow and pink varieties. They do best with lots of sunlight, four hours or more per day, and in a large pot where the roots can stretch out.
6. Gardenia
Gardenia has been proven to have the same soothing sedative effect as valium. The fragrance of gardenia has a calming effect on the mind and body.
While they’re beautiful flowers to decorate your bedroom, the gardenia plant tends to be fussier than other plants. So you can keep them just outside your window instead if you prefer.
These plants need lots of light and plenty of circulation. Be careful how you water them, as the leaves can mildew if water is allowed to sit on them.
Gritty or organic soils are best for gardenia plants; avoid clay-based varieties that will retain water. Too much water on this plant can lead to root rot.
7. Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle tends to be an outdoor plant, but these plants are ideally suited to being a sleep aid. The sweet, musky fragrance of the honeysuckle is relaxing and gets more intense at dusk and in the hours you’re destined to need it the most.
The dwarf versions of this vine grow four feet tall and can be placed in your household or outside your bedroom window. These smaller versions tolerate shade but do best with 5-6 hours of sunlight a day and prefer a habitually moist soil.
8. Golden Pothos
In a study by NASA, Golden Pothos have been proven to detoxify the air in your bedroom. These plants are also an excellent option for allergy sufferers because this “devil’s ivy” is a non-flowering sleep-promoting plant. As a trailing plant, it will not only clean the air but also look lovely spilling down bookshelves in a bedroom environment.
However, they aren’t the best choice for everyone. Golden Pothos are slightly toxic, so you might want a different option if you have a household with pets or children.
9. Bamboo Palm
The Bamboo Palm is an outstanding air purifier that will aid in a better night’s sleep. They are plants that remove three major toxins from the air, trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, and benzene. This typically tropical plant received high marks in NASA’s Clean Air Study and helps to humidify the air, making it a great option for people who suffer from asthma or allergies.
Bamboo Palms need moist soil and low light. As shade plants, they are ideally suited as an addition to your bedroom.
10. English Ivy
The English Ivy allows for a more peaceful sleep by removing toxins like fecal matter and mold spores from the air while improving air quality and alleviating asthma and some allergies. However, this plant won’t eliminate all allergy-causing particles, such as pet dander, dust, or pollen.
They thrive in a dark environment, making English Ivy a smart choice for an indoor bedroom plant. But, since these plants can also cause skin inflammation when touched and are toxic when ingested, they aren’t good choices if you have pets or small children in your home.
