If you live in a place with winter, you’re probably familiar with the dry air it brings. That dry air outside is one thing, but when it’s inside your home, it can affect you in ways that you might not expect. That’s why people use humidifiers for home, to keep the air at a level of humidity that’s ideal for comfort and health.
Humidifiers are devices that help you achieve the right level of humidity in a room by releasing moisture into the air. That moisture comes in the form of steam or water vapor, and can be either warm mist or cool mist. Humidifiers come in various sizes and strengths, but the motivation behind getting one is most frequently to combat dry air inside. But whether you already have a humidifier for home or getting one is on your to-do list, the benefits of a humidifier go a lot further than just making the air less dry. Here’s a few ways you can use a humidifier to make your home an even more comfortable place for everyone.
- A Natural Moisturizer
Whether skincare is a passion of yours or not, most people can agree that dry skin is undesirable. At its very best, it’s uncomfortable and sometimes visible, giving parts of your skin an undesirable chalky or scaly look; at its worst, it’s itchy, irritating, and sometimes painful.
Certain parts of the body are also more susceptible to becoming dry, or may have more irritating symptoms. For example, your hands have fewer oil glands than most of your body and your lips are made of particularly tender skin; thus, both are particularly sensitive to dry air, often becoming chapped even if the rest of your skin feels relatively unaffected. If you are constantly applying lotion or chapstick in the winter, you could probably benefit from a little more humidity in your life. A humidifier for your home is a great way to combat the conditions causing that dry skin by adding moisture to the air.
- Add Some Aromatherapy
There’s just something about a great smelling room, and achieving that great smell from a room spray or an air freshener is never quite the same as taking a more organic route. Each of those may release unwelcome pollutants into the air, and having a good smelling room isn’t quite worth breathing those in. Thankfully, there are more organic routes that work just as well (or better).
As we’ve mentioned, humidifiers add humidity by expelling steam into the air. But essential oil diffusers, popular devices that add aromas to a room, work fairly similarly. They expel a mist into the air, but that mist is mixed with essential oil, making a room smell like your favorite natural extract (think lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, etc.). However, the main difference between the two kinds of devices is that oil diffusers can’t properly humidify the air, but humidifiers can add aromas. So if you have a humidifier and you’re interested in creating an aromatherapy oasis in your home, don’t go buy another device. Many humidifiers even have an essential oil tray meant for this purpose, but if they don’t, you can simply put a few drops of oil into the diffuser’s water tank and let the good aromas take over.
- No More Dry Throat
Dry air can cause or exacerbate a dry throat in a couple of ways. Not only does dry air cause saliva and moisture to evaporate, but it can also affect the inner workings of the throat by drying out your vocal chords, making them scratchy and irritated. And this can all happen without illness or allergies; add a cold or some seasonal allergies into the mix, and these symptoms may be even worse.
Getting a humidifier for home can make a big difference for your throat, whether it’s proactive, just in case you get sick during the winter, or it’s in response to an already dry or itchy throat. As we just mentioned, dry air can cause or worsen these symptoms, so as you can imagine, more moist or humid air can make a big difference. Give your throat some relief by adding a little humidity to your living environment.
- Sinus & Mucus Relief
If you struggle with allergies, colds, or sinus infections at any point in the year, you’re likely open to finding some sinus solutions. Humidifiers for home can help relieve your sinuses and nasal passages from mucus by helping to clear it out.
Interestingly enough, dry air can actually cause people to produce more mucus. So for starters, by simply having more moist air from a humidifier, you can reduce the amount of mucus you’re producing. Additionally, moist air can create a smoother environment within the sinuses and nasal passage to allow some of that mucus to get out, whereas dry air helps create an environment that traps the mucus and keeps you clogged up. The bottom line? A humidifier for home creates a healthier environment for your sinuses.
- Help Out the Snorer in Your Home
As you probably know, many of the symptoms we’ve already talked about on this list contribute to snoring. Stuffy noses, mucus production, dry throats, etc., can all cause someone to snore at night or can make conscious breathing labored and louder than necessary. So, simply enough, if those conditions are eased even a little bit by having a humidifier in your home, then there’s a good chance the snoring caused by those conditions will be reduced as well. Not only will that be a relief for the snorer, but also anybody that sleeps within earshot.
Conclusion
Hopefully this list has shown you that humidifiers aren’t just an unnecessary expense or an extra device to care for. In fact, they’re relatively affordable for something that can make such a difference, and using and caring for your humidifier is pretty simple. The benefits don’t stop with this list, either. Are you a fan of decorating your home with plants? If so, your plants will thank you for adding a humidifier to the room. If you think creatively, the list of ways you can use a humidifier can go on and on. So do yourself and your sinuses and any snorers in your home a favor and try one out.
