7 Stress Relieving Indoor Plants to Add to Your Home

It’s lovely to have mint around for cooking—but this fragrant herb also has serious stress-relieving properties. A study by Wheeling Jesuit University found that sniffing it can actually lower frustration levels and boost alertness.

Yes, jasmine is beautiful and lovely to smell. But according to a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, its scent was found to be “as calming as Valium” to the nervous system. (When the scent was released into a cage of mice, they became so chilled out, they all sat quietly in a corner.) Woah.

You already love this plant for soothing your sunburns and moisturizing your skin. But did you know that it also purifies the air of common carcinogens and emits oxygen at nighttime, helping us to sleep better? P.S. In a recent study, it was also found to reduce depression in mice.

This fragrant, flowering herb has been used medicinally to calm nerves and aid in depression for centuries. (Erm, aromatherapy anyone?) One particularly illuminating study found that the scent of lavender had major effects on lowering pulse rates on nursing students in stressful situations.

According to NASA’s clean air study, this lush-looking plant clears the air of over 107 toxins, and emits tons of oxygen throughout the night. This cocktail can improve your energy levels, ease headaches and quite literally have you breathing easier.

This—may we mention?—delicious herb contains high amounts of an organic compound called linalool (which is commonly used in aromatherapy). A team of Japanese scientists famously conducted a lab rat study that found that exposure to linalool reduces the activity of hundreds of genes that typically go into overdrive during stressful situations.