What are the health benefits of using timber in construction?

Are there any health benefits of using timber? – In the 21^st century, we apparently spend 90% of our lives indoors. Our mindset is known to be affected by our environment so with mental health top of the agenda, no wonder we want to ensure our mental wellbeing is positively affected by our interiors. This isn’t just about our own homes, it’s every interior – work, educational and leisure. Consider where you have been in the last 24 hours and the environments you’ve experienced. Have these made you feel better … mentally?

Health benefits of using timber 

There are many reports including this one which conclude a variety of results that show timber within our environments can affect us physically and mentally. Timber-built interiors enable their occupants to feel happier, leading to greater productivity and innovation – this knowledge has led to a current vogue for timber in the workplace. Other reports state that predominantly timber environments can physically benefit us – our blood pressure, our stress reduction and help bring on improvements in our metabolism. Whether or not you’re a fact checker, we concur that it makes complete sense that natural materials can benefit our wellbeing and timber works brilliantly within the work place and the home environment.  

Bring Down Stress Levels 

‘Stress’ is very much a word of the moment, but it’s common use shouldn’t preclude the importance of how stress can affect us – it can build up almost without notice, and the brain, which is a fantastically complex organ, can make our bodies react in ways we just don’t expect. Long term stress can be a major concern, leading to raised blood pressure and erratic metabolism. Small ways to improve your stress levels can make a huge impact on our daily lives and timber environments can apparently help. Wood is shown to lower the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), bringing down stress levels and enable us to feel more energised and optimistic. Research concludes this following comparisons with people working in predominantly steel or concrete environments. The feelings of uplift and positivity are just not there. This is often reflected in work rate and staff turnover.  

All in the Minds of Young People 

This all makes perfect sense and with research continuing into the health benefits of timber interiors, especially school and college environments, it seems our young people will benefit from positive environments from an earlier age than we had opportunity to do. Surely this will result in ultimately a happier and productive population? All that’s required is that we look at timber for all our built-environments as a first. It’s important and it’s in our hands to do so. It’s time to go-natural and improve all our lives!