Is it bad to sleep with plants in the room?

Surely more than once (and more than two) they will have warned you of the risks it may pose to your health the fact of sleeping in a room in which there are plants present as a decorative element plus.

This traditional belief assumes that plants will use all the oxygen in the room., also necessary for the respiration of human beings, leaving us without enough for us.

The popular thought that plants "steal" our oxygen is widespread.or, but how much is true? Next, we will analyze how plants act in some of their biological functions and what it can really mean for us to share a space with them.

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The biological functions of plants

Plants are living beings, and, therefore, they will have certain vital functions to carry out in order to survive, mainly three: nutrition, relationship and reproduction. Some of the processes that they carry out to carry out these vital functions, mainly nutrition, and on which we are going to pay special attention today, are photosynthesis and respiration.

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a process carried out by plants, algae and some types of bacteria, in a specific organelle called chloroplast. In general lines, during this process, the plants will take advantage of the energy obtained from sunlight for the production of organic matter from inorganic matter.

To obtain these final organic products, plants need to use some compounds inorganic substances, which in this case are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O), which they take from the air and ground.

From them and the light energy, they will obtain chemical energy, which will be stored in form of carbohydrates or sugars, such as glucose, which will serve as an energy source for the plant. This whole process of photosynthesis it is accompanied, in plants, by the release of another compound into the environment, oxygen (O2), fundamental for most forms of life present on planet Earth.

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The breathing

For its part, plant respiration is defined as the set of reactions that occur in plant organelles, the mitochondria, through which carbohydrates that had been synthesized during photosynthesis revert back to inorganic molecules (carbon dioxide and water).

In these reactions, energy is going to be released, which is stored in an energy intermediate, ATP (adenosine triphosphate), to finally be used by the plant to perform its vital functions (growth of organs, transport of compounds and repair processes, among others).

Is it bad to sleep in rooms with plants?

Plants carry out photosynthesis throughout the day, although we might think that they need sunlight, and that, therefore, it would only occur during daylight hours. This is so because during this process there are two types of reactions, those that depend on sunlight and those that are independent of it.

In the same way, plants are carrying out their own respiration reactions continuously, both during the day and at night. This respiration reaction is what they carry out in a similar way to us, taking oxygen (O2) and releasing carbon dioxide (CO2), and, therefore, it is where we have to look to see if plants are really real competitors in obtaining "our" oxygen.

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To what extent do these plant processes affect us?

According to our popular thinking about how negative it can be to sleep in a room with plants, the first thing we have to think about is why do we only care about part of the day, the night.

As we have seen a little above, the process in which plants "compete" with us for oxygen present in the environment is respiration, and this reaction is occurring continuously throughout the day, so in the case of having to worry (which now we will see that there is no reason for it), it would have to be during the 24 hours of the day.

In addition, the key point that makes us dismiss the plants as enemies with whom to share a room, is the volume of oxygen they consume. Contrary to what happens to us, human beings, plants consume volumes of oxygen negligible compared to what a person could consume, hence your company is not harmful to U.S. If you share a room with another person, who consumes approximately 2-3% of the oxygen present in the room during the night, it is not harmful for us, imagine with a plant, which consumes around 0.1% of the oxygen that can be in the bedroom.

Finally, as if the very small expenditure of oxygen that plants make was not enough, we must bear in mind that, in general, the number of plants that we can have in a room is quite small. By this we mean that not even having a good number of plants in our bedroom, the sum of the oxygen expenses that each one of they would be enough to jeopardize the amount of oxygen that would be available to cover our respiratory needs during the evening.

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Positive effects of having plants in the room

Once the information provided by this famous myth has been disproved, we are going to go one step further to get away from these negative effects traditionally raised, to analyze the possible positive effects that the presence of plants in our rooms can bring us.

On the one hand, they will favor creating a good atmosphere in our bedroom, since as a decorative element they will generate a very pleasant climate and will provide a feeling of vitality and freshness that can generate a very positive impact on us, influencing our state of cheer up.

In the same way, many of them give off fragrances that will create a sensation of good smell in our room. In addition, thanks to these smells, a better quality rest for us and the disappearance of the so annoying ones can be favored. insects that appear in our bedroom, thanks to the fact that some of them have compounds that act as repellants in a way natural.

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Examples of plants with a positive impact on our environment

Finally, once we have seen that plants are good roommates, we want to exemplify some of them, capable of providing us with some positive aspects, beyond of its aesthetics, either favoring our well-being, our rest or helping to eliminate the insects that roam our rooms, especially in the months of summer.

1. aloe vera

Aloe vera (or aloe) is a great ally for our homes. In addition to the popularly known anti-inflammatory and nourishing properties for our body, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has shown that this plant is capable of purifying the air in our rooms, improving its quality and acting against harmful polluting compounds present in our daily lives as formaldehyde and benzene. The only thing that aloe vera will need to provide us with these positive effects is a well-lit corner of our room and that we provide the necessary water, which is not too much in this case.

2. Basil

Basil is an aromatic plant that, in addition to being a fundamental element in the gastronomy of many regions, has been traditionally used as repellent for mosquitoes. In addition to driving away these insects, it is able to prevent the growth of their larvae, thus, with the presence of our basil in the rooms of our home, we can rest from these annoying insects that bother us so much, especially in summer.

3. Lavender

Lavender flowers have a very fresh aroma, which will allow us to create a very pleasant atmosphere in the rooms of our home. In addition to its beauty and its good aroma, this plant it will allow us to keep some unwanted insects away from the house, such as moths, flies and mosquitoes.

On the other hand, its dried flowers have an infinite number of uses, both on a decorative level only, and to perfume the interior of our furniture and cabinets with aromatic bags.