Are Bedroom Plants Actually Worth It?

Most lists of bedroom plants will tell you that a snake plant in the corner cleans the air and helps you sleep, and if you've wondered whether any of that is true or whether you'd just be buying something nice to water, this is what a plant will and won't do for the room you sleep in. We make beds for a living and don't sell plants, so we've nothing to gain either way.

The short answer: worth it for how the room feels

Yes, bedroom plants are worth having, but the reasons you usually read for them are the wrong ones.

A plant makes a bedroom look and feel better, because a bit of greenery softens a room and being around it lowers stress for a lot of people, and looking after one can turn into a nice small habit as well.

The health claims don't hold up in the same way. A few houseplants won't clean your air or raise the oxygen in the room by any amount you'd notice, and they won't fix poor sleep either, so if that's why you were going to buy one you can save your money. If you just like the idea of something green and alive by the bed then go ahead and get one.

Do bedroom plants improve air quality?

No, not by any amount you'd notice in a normal bedroom.

The idea comes from lab tests where plants were put in small sealed boxes filled with chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde, which are the fumes that come off paint and new furniture, and in the box the levels dropped. That part is true and it's where every "air-purifying plant" label you see in a garden centre comes from.

A bedroom doesn't work like a sealed box though, because air is moving in and out through the doors and windows all day, and that normal air change clears those chemicals far faster than a plant can. To match it you'd need hundreds of plants for every square metre of floor, so a peace lily on the chest of drawers isn't filtering your air and opening the window for ten minutes will do more than a room full of them.

Oxygen, carbon dioxide and sleeping next to plants

You'll hear two opposite claims about plants and the air at night and neither of them stands up.

The first is that plants fill the room with oxygen while you sleep. Most plants only make oxygen when there's light, and although a few like snake plants and aloe vera do take in carbon dioxide after dark, the amount is so small that it won't change the air you breathe or how you sleep.

The second is the old warning that plants "steal your oxygen" at night and shouldn't be in the room with you. Plants do give off a little carbon dioxide in the dark, but it's far less than a person breathing in the same room or a dog asleep at the end of the bed, and you'd have to pack a small sealed room with plants before it made any difference.

People sometimes mix up carbon dioxide with carbon monoxide as well, which is the dangerous gas you get from faulty boilers and fires, and plants don't produce it.

Can a plant give you a better night's sleep?

Not directly, because there's nothing about a houseplant that makes you sleepy. There are really two separate claims that get bundled together here and only one of them has much behind it.

Greenery, stress and mood

This is the benefit with the best support behind it. People tend to feel calmer in rooms with plants in them and stress drops a little when there's something natural to look at, and tending a plant seems to help too, so five quiet minutes with a watering can is a decent way to wind down before bed.

Most of the research is small and short though, and almost none of it tested sleep in a real bedroom, so the most you can say is that a calmer room may make it a bit easier to switch off and that may help you sleep. It only works if you like having plants around in the first place.

Lavender and jasmine

Lavender is the one plant with a real link to sleep and the link is the scent, because breathing it in helps some people relax and sleep more deeply, which has nothing to do with cleaner air.

The trouble is that lavender is an outdoor plant that wants hours of direct sun and cool nights, and most bedrooms give it neither, so a pot on a dim windowsill will last a few months and then die. If it's the smell you're after then dried lavender or a few drops of oil will do the job better.

Jasmine grows well enough indoors but the scent can be strong enough to keep you awake or give you a headache.

Plants, moisture and humidity levels in a UK bedroom

Plants pull water up through their roots and let it out through their leaves, and thirsty, big-leaved plants like peace lilies do this the most.

Whether that helps depends on your room. If the heating is on all winter and you wake up with a dry throat then a little extra moisture is welcome, although one or two plants will only make a small difference.

Plenty of bedrooms up and down the country have the opposite problem. If your windows run with condensation on cold mornings or there's black mould in a corner, the room already has too much moisture in it and thirsty plants will add more. You'll sometimes read that plants "absorb damp" but they don't in any amount that matters, and what a damp room needs is fresh air and some heat.

The downsides of plants in the bedroom

Most "best bedroom plants" lists leave these out.

Overwatering, mouldy soil and fungus gnats

Compost that stays wet grows mould, usually as a white fuzz on the surface, and it also attracts fungus gnats, which are the tiny black flies you see hovering around pots. You don't want either of those a metre from your pillow, so water less than you think you need to, let the top few centimetres of soil dry out first and never leave a pot sitting in a saucer of water.

Allergies and breathing issues

Houseplants give off very little pollen so hay fever is rarely the problem, and mould in the soil is the more likely trigger. Strong scents can set some people off too, and the milky sap of ficus plants like weeping figs and rubber plants bothers some people with a latex allergy.

If you have asthma or a mould allergy and your chest feels worse at night, take the plants out of the bedroom for a few weeks and see if it helps.

Pets and small children

Several of the most popular bedroom plants are toxic if chewed. Peace lilies, pothos and Chinese evergreens all have sap that irritates the mouth and stomach, which for a cat or dog means drooling and vomiting, and aloe vera and snake plants can upset a pet's stomach too.

True lilies are far more serious. These are the tall, trumpet-flowered kind you get in bouquets, and every part of the plant is poisonous to cats, even a little pollen licked off their fur, and it can cause fatal kidney damage. If you have a cat then don't keep them in the house at all, and ring your vet straight away if your cat has been near one.

Light and upkeep

Bedrooms are often the dimmest rooms in the house, with small windows and curtains shut for half the day, and most plants struggle in that. A yellowing, half-dead plant does nothing for the room or your mood, and if watering starts to feel like one more job on the list then you've lost the calming effect as well.

The popular bedroom plants, claim by claim

The same handful of plants turns up on every list, usually with the same claims attached to them.

"Only in a sealed box" means the effect shows up in lab tests but not in a normal room with a door and a window.

Snake plant

It does take in carbon dioxide after dark, which is where the oxygen claim comes from, but the amount is too small to affect your sleep. What it has going for it is that it's very hard to kill, it puts up with low light and dry air and it won't mind if you forget about it for a month, so it's the plant we'd suggest first for a bedroom.

Peace lily

It looks good and copes with shade but it won't clean your air, and because it's a thirsty plant it adds more moisture than most, which doesn't suit a room that's already damp. Keep it away from pets that chew.

Spider plant

The fume-absorbing claim comes from the same sealed-box tests as the others. A spider plant is easy to keep alive and safe around cats and dogs, so it's a sensible choice for a family home.

Aloe vera

The night oxygen claim is the same as the snake plant's and so is the answer. It needs very little water but it does need a bright windowsill, and in a dim bedroom it goes pale and leggy.

Golden pothos, Chinese evergreen and palms

Pothos and Chinese evergreen both handle low light well and look good on a shelf, but both will irritate a pet's mouth if chewed so put them up high. With palms, go for a kentia or a parlour palm because they cope with drier air, and the parlour palm is safe around pets. Areca palms need a lot of water and misting, which makes them a poor choice for a room that gets condensation.

When to skip plants in the bedroom

For some bedrooms the answer is to leave plants out, and that's the case if:

• you have asthma or a mould allergy that gets worse at night
• the room is already damp or mouldy
• there's barely any daylight
• your cat or dog chews leaves
• you know you won't remember to water them

You can still have plants in the rest of the house, and a bright living room is an easier place to keep one alive anyway.

What gives you cleaner air than any plant

If fresh air is what you're after then you don't need to buy anything.

Open the bedroom window for ten or fifteen minutes each morning, even in winter, and if your windows have trickle vents (the small slots along the top of the frame) leave them open. Throw the duvet back for a while before you make the bed so the moisture from the night can dry off, and keep the room on the cool side at night.

If you'd still like a plant after that, buy one because you like looking at it.