Sleeping potions

Sleep is vitally important, we all know that, but sometimes missing a night of sleep reminds us just how important!  For a variety of reasons I got very little sleep one night this week (a wakeful child, a dang mosquito, loud rain and wind). Usually I am a great sleeper, but as the night went on I felt more and more camaraderie with all the insomniacs out there.  So I wanted to offer those of you who have trouble sleeping some essential oils that can help cultivate slumber. (Eventually I got the child to bed with a Lavender and Ylang Ylang hand massage. She was snoring (finally!) before I finished! Why didn’t I try that earlier?)

There are many essential oils that are helpful for relaxation and sleep.  The oils can be mixed together or used on their own.

Here a some of my favorites:

*Lavender (Make sure to get Lavandula angustifolia which is best for relaxing.) A wonderful oil for assisting with sleep. Use it sparingly because too much can be enlivening.
*Ylang Ylang A delicious tropical oil that helps calm the nervous system and is very soothing.
*Clary Sage A sedating oil that has been used throughout history to bring on dreams.
*Bergamot I’ve written about this oil before. It is great for anxiety and stress; very helpful to calm the brain and allow you to sleep.
*Vetiver This one is in the focus blend I wrote about last month. It is very heavy and rooty. Just a whiff or a drop in a blend is quieting to the mind.
*Marjoram This oil is helpful for sleep and relaxation, A good one for muscle tension, so marvelous in a massage oil before bed

There are many many more, but I find a few of these in most of the sleep combinations I make for clients.

Some suggestions for using oils are:
*Put some essential oils in a small glass of whole milk and pour it all into a warm bath. (The fat in the milk disperses the oils so the oils don’t irritate your skin.)
*Put some oils in a spray bottle with spring water and mist your face and pillow before bed.
*Place several drops of an essential oil on a cotton ball and place it under the pillow (where you won’t lay on it!)
*Have a roll-on (a tiny lipstick sized bottle of essential oils diluted in a base oil with an easy roll-on applicator) by your bed with a nice soothing blend of oils and roll-on inner wrists and temples before bed.
*Give yourself a nice shoulder/neck rub with a fragrant relaxing massage oil (This idea is best because you get the massage and the essential oils!) Click here for a reminder that you can do your own massage! http://crowladyhealing.com/a-video-tip-on-quick-self-massage

Use the aromatherapy before bed even when you know it will be easy to fall asleep because it conditions the body to get sleepy when it smells those scents.  If you wake up at night, use the aromatherapy again and it should be easier to fall back asleep.  My clients, friends and family have had great success when they use aromatherapy to fall asleep. As one happy customer wrote me

“The roll-on is working! It’s not taking me as long to fall asleep and when/if I wake up in the night, I fall back to sleep quickly. So, I would say that it’s a success story! Thanks for working your “magic” and your TLC. “

I checked with her four months later and she wrote:

“It continues to do its magic!”

Poppies worked for Dorothy, but they have too many side effects. Better to stick with essential oils!

Below are the sources I use for essential oils. (As I’ve written before; the world of multi-level marketing makes buying essential oils very confusing and expensive. These are some great small companies that sell beautiful oils at good prices.)

EFT/Tapping is also a great help for insomnia but I’ll talk about that another week.

Hope all can get some lovely deep sleep to help replenish and renew you!