“Keeping a Plant on Your Work Desk Improves Health” - Science
While it has been commonly assumed that plants are rad and amazing for us (a hike in the woods!) a recent scientific study in Japan has collected evidence to prove our collective hunch correct, this time in a workplace setting.
Masahiro Toyoda, Yuko Barnes, and Midori Kaneko at the University of Hyogo in Awaji, Japan worked with people in a workplace control group, who aren’t generally involved with a green environment. Their experiment proved the psychological and physiological impact induced by indoor plants.
Which basically means that plants on our work desk makes us think and feel better!
The participants participated in two phases: a control period without plants, and an “intervention period,” in which they were able to see and care for a small plant of their choice - an air plant, bonsai, San Pedro cactus, foliage plant, kokedama, or an Echeveria (succulent) placed near the monitor on their desk.
Over the course of four weeks, participants recorded their pulse (a good indicator of your body’s stress response,) before and after looking at the plants, and filled out surveys that gauged their psychological state and anxiety levels. About 27% of participants experienced a significant decrease in their pulse rate by the end of the plant-tending period, and most participants’ anxiety scores decreased too. All from caring for and “gazing at” their plant, in just three-minute intervals.
So what makes a Leafve desk plant especially helpful? Having plants to look at presents a healthy, restorative distraction from draining office tasks, according to the study authors. Other research suggests that nature can serve as an antidote to over-stimulation or “attention fatigue” as well as boost cognitive performance.
Beyond just looking at a leafy green plant, researchers wrote that developing a “mild attachment” to the plant (naming your Leafve!) added “slight but meaningful emotional involvement” that intensified the benefits. (Researchers noted that dead plants “did not have a very profound effect on participants’ psychological stress.”)
Takeaway? Plants are super-good for us, especially in environments that would normally fatigue us, like our cars and office spaces!
Sources:
Masahiro Toyoda, Yuko Yokota, Marni Barnes, Midori Kaneko. Potential of a Small Indoor Plant on the Desk for Reducing Office Workers’ Stress. HortTechnology, 2019.
Cory Stieg, This 3-minute, $3 habit could lower your stress and anxiety at work. CNBC.com Health and Wellness. January 3, 2020.