People love small, indoor, recirculating fountains. They can be the perfect accent piece for nature-themed décor. They can create a calming tone to an entryway or make a focal point in a living room. They complement statuary, plants, and stone—and they offer multiple benefits for your health. Bonsai World LLC has the inside scoop!
The Sound of Water Calms the Sympathetic Nervous System
We all know the calming effect of listening to the waves come in at the beach or the peace we can feel at a waterfall or hiking along a babbling brook in the woods. But water sounds from your garden décor or interior design can serve as an antidote for stress and pain, proven by scientific experiments.
Surgeons at the Aichi Medical University in Japan did a clinical study of the healing power of nature sounds played during a particular kind of delicate surgery. They either played a tape with nature sounds during the operation or not. They also measured an enzyme called salivary amylase, an indicator of a fight-or-flight reaction to stress. Patients having their surgery in an operating room where nature sounds were played produced lower levels of this marker of stress hormones.
Another group of researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of Stockholm in Sweden tested the power of nature sounds to help people deal with stressful tasks. They asked 40 volunteers to perform mental arithmetic while exposed to random noise or the sound of running water. As you might expect, the volunteers who performed the task in an atmosphere of natural sounds reported less stress.
Other scientists have found that listening to the sound of running water relaxes the skin, increases heart-rate variability (the ability of the heart to beat at different rates to provide the exact amount of circulation the body needs), and increases the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that regulates our bodies at rest. And clinical experiments have confirmed that the sound of running water accelerates recovery after illness and stress.
An Indoor Water Fountain Helps You Sleep
Our bodies are hard-wired to respond to nature's sounds of safety. The calming sounds of running water help you sleep.
Indoor water fountains are often classified with white noise generators. A white noise generator can drown out the sounds of a barking dog or an agitated cat, freeway traffic noise, or a sleeping partner's gentle snoring. Indoor water fountains block out all the kinds of sounds that white noise generators do, but they do much more.
A small bedside indoor water fountain doesn't just block out the sounds that make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. It entrains your brain to send out signals to lower the production of the stress hormone cortisol. It helps your heart establish a rhythm that is "just regular enough." It helps your parasympathetic nervous system guide your body into a deep sleep.
Indoor Water Fountains Purify Your Air
Moving water also helps remove dust, dander, and microorganisms from indoor air. We won't exaggerate. A bedside water fountain is less efficient at removing small particles from the air than a HEPA filter. But indoor water fountains slowly "wash" the air, removing particles and trapping them in the water stream.
Indoor water fountains generate negative ions that attract positively charged dust, dander, and pollen particles. Unlike HEPA air cleaners, they don't need to have their filters changed. Change the water in your indoor water fountain every few months when you put in new batteries.
Indoor Water Fountains Humidify Your Air
Forced-air heating and summer air conditioning does a wonderful job of regulating your home's temperature. The problem with these basic temperature control methods is that they dry out the air.
Dry air causes tiny cracks in your skin. Dead skin cells can proliferate on the surface of your skin, giving it a gray, dusky appearance instead of your usual vibrant skin tones. Tiny cracks in the linings of your throat and sinuses give bacteria and viruses a chance to come in. Low humidity invites colds and sinus infections all year long.
The amount of humidity in an indoor water fountain isn't a lot. It's very localized, just in the areas where you enjoy it. But that tiny amount of extra humidity can make a noticeable difference in the suppleness and color of your skin and how easily you can breathe.
Indoor Water Fountains Help You Concentrate
Another advantage of indoor water fountains that no family should overlook is the way they help students doing their homework and adults doing work at home stay on task.
It's natural to look for other inputs while getting a task out of the way. People check their phones every few minutes. They want to check their social media pages. Or they want to get up for a drink, smoke, or snack.
Indoor water fountains provide a gentle stimulus to the brain that can help you resist your urges to seek distractions. They can even help people with ADHD because of a phenomenon known as stochastic resonance.
People who have ADHD, ironically, need more background noise to be able to concentrate. Their brains need to search for what is important for the task at hand to find it. The gentle sounds of an indoor water fountain give them the stimulation they need to "find" the task at hand.
Listening to music through headphones may not help you or your child concentrate, but the gentle sounds of an indoor water fountain will. Students who do their homework with just the gentle sounds of an indoor water fountain learn faster and remember longer.
Bonsai World LLC can help you find the perfect indoor water fountain for adding beauty and serenity to your home. Visit our extensive collection of indoor water features for every home!