Discover the Power of Essential Oils for Better Sleep
It has become normal for us to deal with sleep problems. Everyday stress, overthinking, anxiety, depression, or certain medications can be the reason for the inability to fall asleep or waking up multiple times during the night. Not being able to properly rest our body, makes us more nervous, irritable, and tired. In addition, if this state persists over a longer period of time, it can have more serious consequences for our health.
If you have a hard time falling asleep, you might have tried things like taking supplements and creating a bedtime routine. In addition to these, another thing that you could try to help your body and mind is using essential oils for sleep. They are easy to implement into your nighttime routine and are an inexpensive alternative compared to medication or supplements.
What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are extracts that can come from different parts of a plant – leaves, flowers, seeds, roots, and fruit. They retain the specific fragrance of the plant from which they are extracted. Different processes can be used for extraction, such as distillation, cold pressing, expression, solvent extraction, etc. These oils don’t contain any chemicals as perfumes or fragrances do. They’ve been used in traditional medicine for healing but gained attention not so long ago for their use in aromatherapy.
Essential Oils for Better Sleep
Lavender Oil
Besides its aromatic smell and gorgeous colour, lavender is known for its many uses for our well-being. It’s the number one plant proven to have a calming effect. You can buy pure lavender oil or try an essential oil sleep blend to help you relax and fall asleep faster. The lavender essential oil has a sedative effect, which means it’s calming. It also has many anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antidepressant properties. It’s used for relieving headaches, reducing stress, anxiety, insomnia, and nervousness, all of which can prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep.
Chamomile Oil
We all know how soothing a cup of chamomile tea can be. Chamomile oil contains antioxidants that help relieve depression, insomnia, and aid sleep. By reducing tension in our muscles, it makes us more relaxed and improves our sleep quality.
Geranium Oil
Geranium acts as an antidepressant and mood booster, it calms our nerves and makes us feel more grounded. When used in a form of inhalation, the steam will open up your pores and since it contains properties that are good for your skin, it will give you a glowing, healthy complexion.
Frankincense Oil
Frankincense oil is known for its health benefits. It has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties that are good for our immunity. It’s effective for reducing feelings of anxiety and negative emotions, and it’s helpful for relieving stress and making us more peaceful. It’s one of the most often used essential oils to help you sleep.
Ylang Ylang Oil
The flowers ylang-ylang come from the tropical Cananga tree. They have a sweet, fruity smell. The oil from the flowers is shown to promote relaxation, lower heart rate, control stress levels and emotions, and improve our mood. This guarantees that you’ll get a full night’s sleep.
Valerian Oil
This oil has the effect of a sedative and it has the ability to calm down our nervous system. It interacts with the chemicals in our brain related to regulating stress and producing anxiety, helping us to calm down in stressful situations. Valerian oil can control our mood swings and its compounds stimulate sleepiness, helping our body achieve deep sleep, which is important in order to feel well-rested in the morning.
Other Essential Oils For Sleep
- Bergamot Oil – This essential oil comes from the Bergamot Orange fruit and it has a citrusy, floral smell. Some of its numerous benefits include easing insomnia, anxiety, lowering the heart rate, and increasing the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the body;
- Marjoram Oil – The Marjoram herb is used as a cooking spice, but its oil is known for having a calming effect on our nerves, relaxing tense muscles, and alleviating stomach cramps and migraines;
- Cedarwood Oil – With its woody scent, it helps decrease anxiety feelings, has sedative qualities, and acts as a diuretic and antiseptic.
- Neroli Oil – Produced from a bitter orange tree, this essential oil calms our mind and tones down feelings of agitation.
- Rose Oil – Besides its use as a beauty product, rose oil decreases anxiety levels and insomnia, helps normalise breathing and feeling secure.
How to Use Them
One of the most popular ways to use essential oils is aromatherapy. It’s an alternative form of medicine used for healing and overall well-being.
One way to do it is through inhalation. You can get a diffuser to diffuse your favourite essential oil or essential oil sleep blend in the air so you can inhale them to help you unwind and de-stress. You can also make yourself a steam bath, put several drops on your pillow, or spray them in the air.
You can dilute essential oils and use them topically for massage. Sensitive people should be extra careful, though. To avoid irritations, you should always use carrier oils for dilution, like olive, coconut, almond, jojoba oil, and sunflower seed because essential oils are too strong for the skin to be used on their own. This also applies to using oils in steam baths because oil doesn’t mix with water, and the drops come in contact with your skin.
Through massage, especially when massaging the feet, the oils are better absorbed into the body. Moreover, a few drops of diluted essential oil can be applied directly to the neck, ears, or other affected areas. If you purchase an essential oil blend, there’s no need for dilution.
Safety
Different oils may affect everyone differently. If something is beneficial for you, it doesn’t mean that it will be good for someone else. We all have different needs and sensitivities, so how an essential oil will work on someone is a very individual thing.
Most of the essential oils aren’t made for ingestion. You should avoid that or consult with a doctor or a certified aromatherapist before doing so.
Before applying them on your skin, always do a small patch test to see if there will be any allergic reaction.
Be careful when using them around small children, pregnant women, or pets because not all of them are considered safe. Do your research of all the possible side-effects an essential oil or a blend could have, and definitely consult with someone for better insight.
Always read the ingredients when buying essential oils because not all of them are entirely natural. Some may contain synthetic oils.