The 19 Best Plants to Have in Your Bedroom
If you struggle to get quality sleep at night, one idea you might consider is moving a plant or two to your bedroom. Barring any allergies, the air-purifying qualities and overall calming affect of vegetation of many houseplant species can help you slip off to dreamland that much easier. Which houseplants should you add to your bedroom?
Which are the best plants to have in your bedroom? The best plants to have in your bedroom are:
- Aloe vera
- Weeping fig
- Transvaal daisy
- Chinese evergreen
- Fiddle-leaf fig
- Rosemary plant
- Rubber fig
- Sword fern
- Areca palm
- Dracaena
- Devil’s ivy
- Valerian
- Gardenia
- Snake plant
- Philodendron
- Jasmine
- Lavender
- Spider plant
- Peace lily
In this article, I’ll elaborate more on each of these 19 fascinating houseplant species, including some fun facts about them and why they’re so great to have in the bedroom. Insomniacs are not going to want to miss this!
19 Houseplants for Better Bedroom Air Quality and Sleep
Aloe Vera
The first plant on the list is one you’re surely familiar with. Even if you don’t grow aloe vera in your indoor garden, you’ve likely relied on its medicinal qualities to treat an itchy bug-bite or a sunburn.
Aloe vera is classified as an evergreen perennial. This succulent is grown worldwide in arid, semi-tropical, and tropical regions. The Arabian Peninsula is the aloe’s native home.
Nighttime is traditionally when most houseplants will slow down their oxygen production, but not the aloe vera. Since it adds more oxygen to any room it’s growing in, it makes a fantastic addition to your bedroom. Oh, and if you occasionally forget to water this bedroom plant, it’s a succulent so, depending on the temperature & placement in your bedroom, it can go a little longer than most plants without H2O. You’ll breathe easy with an aloe vera living in your bedroom.
Weeping Fig
The ficus tree, Benjamin fig, and weeping fig are all nicknames for the Ficus benjamina, a houseplant that I’ve written about multiple times, here on our website, mainly because of it’s remarkable job of removing toxins from the air around it. A Moraceae family member, the weeping fig is native to Australia and Asia.
I often include the far away lands a particular plant is native to so you’ll have a rough idea of the conditions the plant would ideally thrive in.
Interesting Fact
The weeping fig makes a statement no matter where in your home you put it. That’s due to its pretty braided stems and healthy, lush green leaves. It will take time and patience for your weeping fig to grow to maturity, but it’s worth the wait. Your Ficus benjamina removes trichloroethylene, benzene, and formaldehyde, three toxins you don’t want to breathe in.
In 2014, Chemical Central Journal published data that found the weeping fig could even be antimicrobial. Its extracts are heavy with antioxidants as well, which may ward off cancer, heart disease, and other diseases caused by free radicals.
Transvaal Daisy
Many houseplants are both beautiful and beneficial, such as the Transvaal daisy. An Asteraceae family member, the Gerbera L. grows in Asia, Africa, and South America, particularly in the most tropical areas there. Traugott Gerber, a medical doctor and botanist in Germany, had the flower named after him.
This bright, cheerful daisy blooms in such hues as white, electric pink, bright orange, butter yellow, red, and deep maroon. Some Transvaal daisies are even a combination of colors, making for an eye-catching addition to any indoor garden.
Benzenes and trichloroethylenes stand no chance in your bedroom with a few Transvaal daisies in there. Just make sure the room you put this flowering plant in has sunlight, or you could stunt the blooming capabilities of the Transvaal daisy.
Chinese Evergreen
A humble plant that’s always a good idea to grow, the Chinese evergreen or Aglaonema is an Araceae family member from New Guinea and Asian regions. As evergreen perennials (hence the name Chinese evergreen), it’s believed having one of these plants in your indoor garden will bring you luck.
Perhaps that luck is in the form of the Chinese evergreen’s air-purifying abilities. It’s known to fight off formaldehyde and benzene from the air.
Even if your bedroom doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, this houseplant can handle it, as it actually does best in indirect light. Make sure you keep the soil moist and your Chinese evergreen may even sprout some flowers!
Fiddle-Leaf Fig
A tall plant that can grow as high as 15 meters, the fiddle-leaf fig is suitable for indoor gardeners with some room to spare. In the Moraceae family with other figs, the Ficus lyrata comes from the lowland tropical rainforest regions of Africa, such as Sierra Leone and Cameroon.
Here’s something cool about the fiddle-leaf fig. Unlike most houseplants, where you can propagate the cuttings into new houseplants, that doesn’t work for this fig species. Instead, should you prune or cut away dead leaves and stems, new ones will eventually grow in that spot.
If keeping the fiddle-leaf fig in your bedroom, make sure it has adequate light. Just as important, this houseplant requires plenty of humidity, 30 to 65 percent for best results. While the fiddle-leaf fig is a bit of a finicky houseplant to grow, its refined look makes any bedroom look better.
Rosemary Plant
If you don’t want to grow rosemary for the fresh supply of herbs you’ll always have on hand, then surely you’ll change your mind once you hear how it can help in your bedroom. Not only does it clear the air of toxins, but rosemary is also said to keep your mood at an even keel and lessen stress.
The Salvia rosmarinus or rosemary was known as the Rosmarinus officinalis through 2017, when it was then reclassified. Hailing from the Mediterranean, this evergreen herb has an appealing scent and a distinct flavor. That taste is described as peppery, woodsy, and pine-like with a hint of lemon. It’s no wonder so many dishes have their flavors brought out with a light topping of rosemary.
Don’t be surprised if your rosemary plant begins growing flowers, as that’s totally normal. These are delightful in their own right, as the flowers bloom in beautiful hues of blue, purple, pink, or white. I always see it as a bonus when they flower.
Rubber Fig
From one species of fig to another, the rubber fig is another houseplant to consider putting in your bedroom. The Ficus elastica goes by such other names as the Indian rubber tree, the Indian rubber bush, the rubber plant, or the rubber tree. Florida, the West Indies, and Sri Lanka are naturalized homes for this fig, but it originally grew in southeast Asia.
The large, green leaves of the rubber fig resemble that material. Some varieties of this houseplant have very dark, almost black leaves with touches of red. Others grow lighter colors with white borders and pink or red details.
Formaldehyde is a thing of the past with a rubber fig in the bedroom. More so than that, this humble fig can keep parasites away, and it could also prevent the development of tropical diseases.
Every few weeks or so, make sure you give the leaves of your rubber fig a nice cleaning with a moist paper towel. Due to the large size of leaves they produce, they’re prone to accumulating dust and debris that can build up fast.
Areca Palm
A great day starts with the right mindset, and it won’t be hard to feel good when you step out of bed and see an areca palm in your bedroom. The Dypsis lutescens is also referred to as the butterfly palm, yellow palm, and golden cane palm as its fronds sometimes take on a more golden hue.
This Madagascar native belongs to the Arecaceae family. These days, it’s naturalized and grown in many tropical regions across the world. These include the Leeward Antilles, Leeward Islands, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, southern Florida, the Canary Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, El Salvador, and the Andaman Islands.
Another great home for the areca palm is your bedroom. The extra moisture that’s added to the air thanks to your new palm tree will have you feeling sleepy in no time, not to mention, the air you’ll be breathing will be cleaner, as the Areca Palm also does a great job of purifying air as well.
Dracaena
In a similar vein to the areca palm is the dracaena, a word that comes from the ancient Greek term for a female dragon. This houseplant is split between the Dracaenaceae and Agavoideae families depending on which dracaena variety you have.
If you’ve never seen a dracaena before, it has tall, straight stems and frond-like leaves (called canes) in all sorts of colors, such as light green, pale yellow, and dark red.
While the Dracaena is known as a slow grower, NASA has identified the dracaena as a hard worker in ridding your bedroom of benzene and formaldehyde. That ought to convince you to give this vertically challenged houseplant a try. Once you do, make sure it gets filtered light daily. Water your dracaena when the soil is very dry.
When it comes to watering your Dracaena, remember to let the soil become completely dry between each watering. I’ve personally loved my share of Dracaena to death by watering them before the soil had dried from the previous watering.
Pro Tip
Devil’s Ivy
Whether you call it the devil’s ivy or the pothos, here’s another great houseplant species for your bedroom. Scientifically referred to as the Epipremnum aureum, this Araceae family member comes from French Polynesia’s Society Islands.
The devil’s ivy used to grow in temperate conditions, but it’s since expanded to sub-tropical and tropical regions thanks to naturalization. These days, you can even find it growing wild in the West Indies, the Pacific Islands, South and Southeast Asia, and northern Australia.
If you’re a beginner or generally bad with plants & you’ve been looking for a hanging plant for your bedroom, the devil’s ivy A.K.A. Pothos is the houseplant you’ve been looking for!
Of course, you can also grow it traditionally in a pot or planter in the corner of your room. Either way, it’s another NASA-recognized houseplant lauded for its ability to rid carbon monoxide and benzene from indoor environments.
While you should still invest in a carbon monoxide detector, given that gas is considered a silent killer, having devil’s ivy at home should give you great peace of mind. You don’t even need great ventilation in your home or apartment for the Devil’s Ivy or pothos to thrive, which is pretty awesome.
Valerian
Beloved for both its beauty and its great flavor (yes, you can eat it), valerian has definitely earned its spot on this list. This perennial from Asia and Europe, known as the Valeriana officinalis, is in the Caprifoliaceae family with more than 850 other plant species.
Its flowers, which come in white or pink, are gorgeous and smell great. Just make sure you ward off grey pugs and other moths and butterflies, as they love the flowers almost as much as you will.
As an herb, valerian has a flavor that’s quite woodsy. It makes a great main ingredient for tea, and it’s said that the plant’s root extract may make you sleepy. Even if you don’t want to consume your valerian, that effect carries on in plant form. Just breathe in the houseplant’s roots and you should be off to dreamland in no time. It’s even believed your sleep quality will be better.
Gardenia
If you can’t get enough of flowering plants that are as good for you as they are nice to look at, then feast your eyes on the gardenia.
Interestingly, this houseplant is considered a Rubiaceae member, which is the coffee family.
Fun Fact
Thriving best in subtropical and tropical environments like those found on the Pacific Islands as well as Madagascar, Asia, and Africa, the plant sprouts lovely, elegant white flowers that are almost rose-like. Both John Ellis and Carl Linaeaus, two botanists, named the plant.
According to a study published in 2010 from Phytomedicine, a gardenia’s crocetin–a type of apocarotenoid dicarboxylic acid–has a whole host of bedtime benefits. These include inducing sleep, lessening anxiety so your worries don’t keep you up, and helping you stay asleep so you feel well-rested. In fact, the crocetin is said to rival Valium in terms of effectiveness for sending you off to sleep.
Snake Plant
Like the aloe vera plant I talked about at the beginning of this article, snake plants also continue making oxygen even once the sun goes down. This increased oxygen in your bedroom is a fantastic aide that can lead to you getting a cozy night of sleep.
The snake plant is one houseplant you should almost know inside and out as a frequent reader of this blog. Here’s one of my most recent posts on snake plants, where I explain a common issue people experience with snake plants, A.K.A. Mother in Law’s Tongue, where they don’t realize their snake plant has been dead for a while because it’s still green & standing upright leading many people to continue to water a dead plant.
Philodendron
If you remember my post on plants that live the longest, philodendrons can be in it for the long haul. With the utmost care, some can live for upwards of 40 years, which is quite awe-inspiring, really.
You’ll want your philodendron around for just as long if you can. This Araceae family member with nearly 500 species has large, bright green leaves that induce a tropical feel in any room of your home. Besides just admiring your philodendron, you can also appreciate how it cleans the air.
As a word of caution, if you own a cat or dog who sleeps in your bedroom, you might want to either rethink putting a philodendron in your bedroom or make sure it’s in a place where your fur babies can’t reach them.
Should your pet get curious and eat part of your Philodendron , it could be life-threatening. Philodendrons are toxic to pets.
Jasmine
You’ll have the best-smelling bedroom around when you grow a jasmine plant in there. This olive family member of vines and shrubs prefers warm and even tropical environments. It’s no wonder jasmine thrives natively in Oceania and Eurasia, where the temperatures are toasty enough for blooming to occur.
The white, five-petaled (or thereabouts) flowers of the jasmine have quite a strong smell, but it’s one that’s sweet. Set against the shrubs with their bright green hue and glossy texture and you have an Instagram-worthy bedroom addition.
Many studies done on the jasmine plant’s scent have found it can enhance your quality of sleep and lessen your anxiety. Keep the watering up when the jasmine is in bloom to encourage more of that behavior, but make sure you don’t overwater it!
Lavender
The pretty pop of purple and accompanying soothing scent makes lavender a popular pick for bedroom houseplants.
In the Lamiaceae family, lavender has nearly 50 other flowering species among it. It’s referred to as Lavandula and grows natively in southeast India, southwest Asia, the Mediterranean, eastern Africa, Europe, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde.
While you may have used lavender oil to make your home smell better in the past, why not try the real deal instead? The lavender plant’s scent will put you in a much more relaxed state, lowering your heart rate and blood pressure to more calming levels. If you have trouble sleeping, I’d highly recommend a lavender plant.
Another great reason to add lavender to your bedroom is to help with anxiety. According to a new study from Sciencedirect.com titled “Effects of lavender on anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis” involving over 8 thousand participants published as recent as December 2019 in Sciencedirect “The quantitative synthesis showed that lavender inhalation can significantly reduce anxiety levels measured with any validated scale”. Now that is Exciting
Spider Plant
You might add to your lavender plant a spider plant or Chlorophytum comosum. This flowering perennial has been a frequent topic of discussion on our website, most recently, this post about how to save a pale, limp spider plant.
Assuming you’ve read a couple of our previous articles on Spider Plants, let’s just dive into why it’s on this list, shall we? Those long, dangling fronds of the spider plant are adept at air purification, making your bedroom the place to be at home.
You also get some variety in terms of how you’ll grow your spider plant. Similar to the devil’s ivy, spider plants are right at home in a hanging basket, but also look great sitting in a pot, possibly on your nightstand or dresser. Anytime I have a hanging basket I’m excited to use, I try to find a nice area to hang a spider plant. I find that letting the leaves or fronds of a spider plant the freedom to hang over the side of a container seems to produce happier spider plants.
Peace Lily
I recently wrote an article about how peace lilies are one of the indoor plants that quite likes the occasional coffee grounds. That may have inspired you to get your own peace lily or maybe you already own one that lives in your bathroom or kitchen. Now you’re wondering if putting a peace lily in your bedroom where you sleep is a good idea.
The answer is yes! The Spathiphyllum, or Peace Lily, may actually be one of the best bedroom houseplants. That’s because it rids the air of not one, not two, but five toxins. These are ammonia, xylene, trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, and benzene.
Now, for a bit of a history lesson on the peace lily if you’ve missed prior posts about it. This houseplant in the Araceae family has nearly 50 other members. These natively grow in southeast Asia and the Americas’ warmest regions.
Make sure to keep your bedroom temperature no lower than 55 degrees Fahrenheit when growing a peace lily. The soil should drain well and stay moist between waterings.
How many plants do you need to purify a room?
You can’t believe you ever slept without houseplants in your bedroom before. You’re ready to take a few plants from your indoor garden, but how many do you need to adequately purify the air in your room?
Better Homes and Gardens suggests you can make your bedroom air quality cleaner by a rate of 25 percent with only a single plant. Five plants clean the air 75 percent more.
Now, five houseplants in one bedroom may be a bit excessive for some people, not me, so use your discretion here.
Which plants produce oxygen at night?
Earlier in this article, I wrote about the aloe vera and snake plant, two species of houseplants that produce oxygen at night. If you want more plants that will add oxygen to your bedroom at night, I’ve added this list of not-so-common indoor plants that will do just that.
Here’s a list to get you started:
- Orchids
- Rama tulsi
- Christmas cactus
- Gerbera
- Neem tree
