How Humidifiers Help with Dry Air, Allergies and Other Things

What do humidifiers help with?

This is such an innocent question, but a very important one all the same. If you are asking this, maybe this is your first time buying a humidifier.

Or maybe someone has suggested that you need to get one.

Humidifiers are popular appliances. Whether you are looking for one for a big room or for a small room, you will find many on Amazon.com. You can even order the one below:

Humidifiers have many benefits. However, they only have one use: raising the humidity in your rooms.

You may read our article about using a humidifier with essential oils for aromatherapy. However, you will also see that we do not recommend it.

For that, you can get a diffuser. It will do a much better job.

Without wasting your time, let us see 10 things that humidifiers can help you with.

10 things that humidifiers help with

There are more than 10 things that humidifiers can help you with. However, these are the most important. Keep reading:

1. Humidifiers increase comfort in your home

Humidifiers increase your indoor comfort. Your home is your haven, where you relax and feel the stress of the day going out of every pore in your body. Dry air in the house will only add to your misery.

During the cold season, this comfort can be quite elusive. When you turn on the heat, it sucks all the moisture from the air.

This leaves the air too dry for you. It may even hurt your nasal passages, especially if you have a cold.

Put a humidifier in a place where it can spread its warm or cool mist all over the room. If you have a large room, you will need a large room humidifier, and vice versa.

2. Humidifiers can help protect your indoor items

Raspy dry air is not good for your wooden furniture, paintings, paint, wood, and walls.

It can suck all the moisture from them and leave them dry, creaky, and in poor shape. When you live in a constant state of dry air, it can affect all of these things.

Basically, what we are saying is that it is just best to ensure that you maintain the right level of humidity indoors—not more than 50 percent and not lower than 35 percent.

Sure, you may have to contend with humidifier dust but the effort is worth it.

3. It can help make your home warmer faster

Damp air gets warmer faster. If you have a warm mist humidifier, it will make the air even faster. Even a cool mist humidifier has been proven to make the air warmer than when the air is dry.

When the indoor humidity is at the right level, heat spreads quickly. Thus, you may not have to run the heat as much as you would without the right humidity. You can save some money on your heating bill.

4. Humidifiers help with pollen

Pollen is one of the most notorious indoor allergens. When spring sets in and the wildflowers go to full bloom, there will be a lot of pollen finding its way into your house.

Since pollen floats in the air, you will find it hard to keep it out of the house. You want to open the windows in spring to let in the sun. The pollen finds its way inside.

Before you start sneezing and wheezing all over, turn on the humidifier. It will help a lot. It helps with pollen because it becomes too heavy when it absorbs moisture. They fall to the ground. Without the pollen floating in the air, you are safe.

Be careful since humidifiers do not help with all types of indoor allergens. Thus, for dust mites and mold, you will have to find other ways to eliminate them.

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5. It helps with asthma

A humidifier is not a remedy for asthma, allergies, or any other form of illness. However, it can make life more comfortable for you if you have asthma. When your airways are inflamed, dry air can hurt them too much.

To ease the pain, use a humidifier to increase the level of humidity in the home. That way, you will be able to breathe much better. You can ask your physician what the best kind of humidifier for asthma.

If anyone in your family has asthma, always have a humidifier nearby. Check the humidity from time to time with a hygrometer.

Maintain an optimum level of humidity. Too much humidity is not good for asthma. Dry air is bad. You must find the perfect balance for maximum comfort.

6. Humidifiers can help with colds and coughs

Colds affect the nasal passages and other parts of the airways. When the cold is too much, it can even make the airways inflamed.

When you inhale dry air, you are likely to experience throat irritation and pain in the nasal passages. You may even experience some wheezing in the chest. Just turn on the humidifier if someone suffers from a cold.

Raise the indoor humidity level just a little, and you will see a big difference. Also, note that using a humidifier is not a remedy for colds.

You should visit a doctor for diagnosis and treatment. Just as in the case of asthma, a humidifier can make life more comfortable when you have a cold.

In winter, you will be more susceptible to colds. Your nasal membranes could become swollen, blocking the air and causing pain every time you inhale.

When you increase the humidity just a bit, the air becomes “silkier” and you feel more comfortable.

You may wonder how a humidifier helps with a cough. You can read more about it here. However, in a nutshell, moist air helps you cough out all the phlegm congesting your airways. This is usually impossible with dry air.

7. You can sleep better with a humidifier

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When you have dry air in the bedroom, you will not be able to sleep well. Also, snoring gets worse when the air is drier, earning you many stiff elbows from your wife. You may also find your sleep interrupted from time to time.

When you sleep in a room with dry air in the middle of the night, you are likely to experience a burning sensation inside the nostrils. However, when you use a humidifier, you will reduce this sensation, and you will be able to sleep much better.

It has also been established that running a humidifier at night, even in the summer, can help with the sleep apnea condition. Sleep apnea is a condition where breathing stops and starts repeatedly. Relaxation of the throat muscles causes this.

When you inject some moisture into the air in your bedroom, air moves freely over the throat muscles. This helps reduce snoring. By the way, snoring is an indication of sleep apnea.

8. Humidifiers can help your child or baby sleep better

Because of the very sensitive nature of your baby’s airways, they are more susceptible to the effects of dry air than adults.

It is recommended that you always check the humidity level in your baby’s room and maintain it at an optimum percentage.

The body regenerates during sleep. For the healthy growth of the baby’s cells and for enhancing the power of their immune system, enough sleep is paramount all the time.

When the baby’s nursery has dry air, the baby will wake up several times in the night. This happens due to pain and irritation inside the nostrils caused by dry air.

Buy a small humidifier for your baby’s room. If it is too big, it may overhumidify the room. Just as dry air is not good for babies, too-damp air is also not good. If you have been asking what humidifiers help with, you now have your answer.

Humidifiers have low noise levels, especially those targeted to be used in a baby’s room. They produce a “white noise,” which actually helps babies sleep much better.

9. It helps to keep the skin moist

One of the indications of dry air in the house is dry, broken, or chapped skin. It is always advisable to seek the advice of your doctor so that you can rule out other conditions.

When you inject some moisture into your room, you should enjoy more moist skin and hair!

If you have a little one and you notice that their lips seem too dry, sometimes even parched, it is because they are exposed to very dry air.

You can rectify this by running your humidifier. While the skin does try to keep itself moisturized, it can surely benefit from some humidity.

Dry skin is susceptible to acne breakouts. If you have been experiencing unexplained skin breakouts, check the humidity level in the house with a hygrometer.

If the humidity is below 40 percent, it is time to crank it up a bit to between 40 and 50 percent.

10. Tone down flu attacks

When you are looking for information about what humidifiers help with, you will find that they help with the flu. Flu is caused by the influenza virus. With the right level of humidity in the air, this virus is not as active as it is in dry air.

Benefits of humidifiers: FAQ

If you still need to know more about how a humidifier can help you, read the frequently asked questions here:

What are the benefits of using a humidifier?

There are many. First, it maintains the right humidity level. Secondly, it helps you to breathe better, and thirdly, it maintains the condition of your books, paintings, and furniture. Fourthly, it can help with allergies.

When should you use a humidifier?

You can use your unit in winter when the air becomes too dry. When you crank up the heater, the air becomes too dry. You can also run a humidifier when the hygrometer humidity readings drop.

Do humidifiers clean the air?

They do not clean up the air. Rather, they add warm or cool mist to the air. Since they do not suck in the air and then release it, they do not purify the air. For that, you need an air purifier.

Does a humidifier help with smoke in the house?

A humidifier is mainly used for humidification, so it does not help to purify the air of dust, smoke, and other contaminants. Smoke in the house makes your air quality much worse.

Do air humidifiers help with dust?

No, they do not. However, when it starts pumping mist into the air, it might make the dust heavy so that it does not float about. Thus, you will not inhale the dust. But the dust does not go away; it stays indoors.

In conclusion

What do humidifiers help with, apart from increasing humidity in the air? You have seen for yourself.

Actually, there are more benefits to using humidifiers at home. Since they do more good than harm (they do have some disadvantages), it costs you just a little to keep it running, even through the night.

Whether you buy an ultrasonic humidifier, a warm mist one, or any other, you will notice some improvement in your comfort when living or sleeping at home. Just make a habit of cleaning your humidifier regularly.