Essential Oils for Sleep

Everyone knows that the holy trinity of good heath is a nutritious diet, daily exercise, and good sleep. Unfortunately, the sleep part isn’t always so easy. Here at Nature’s Fusions, we are here to help you relax so that you can get the zzzz’s you so desperately need. 

Counting Sheep With Essential Oils

With blue lights blaring at you from your various screens, late-night emergencies that get your blood pressure zooming, and over-full days brimming with stress, it can be hard to relax when it is finally time to sleep. For too many of us, “sleep” is most adequately described as a restless night of tossing and turning in bed with our minds running a million miles an hour. “Did I remember to lock the door? Is little Emma going to be ok? Can I stretch the budget enough to get William a new pair of shoes? And ouch, did I say something wrong to Joe from across the street?” This unfortunate phenomenon is often the result of a tired body combining with a wired, over-stressed mind.

If you struggle sleeping on a regular basis, you might have hardwired your brain to believe that bedtime is the designated time for rumination and anxiety. This means that you need to rewire your brain. The best way to teach your brain that bedtime is for sleep is by creating a nightly routine that lets your brain know it is time to let go and relax. 

First, take time to unwind. Turn off all screens at least thirty minutes before bed. Find something that relaxes you. You might choose to do some light reading, meditate, do some gentle yoga, or soak in a warm bath. Whatever you decide, turn it into a nightly ritual. This will become a reminder to your brain that it is time to turn off and go to sleep. 

Another way to retrain your mind is to power into your olfactory receptors. Your sense of smell is extremely potent because of the special anatomy of your brain. While other senses take a more formal route to connect with your thinking brain, smells zip directly to your hippocampus and amygdala, the regions that are responsible for memory and emotion. Because of this handy brain-nose connection, you can use smells to easily create certain triggers. 

By combining relaxation with aromatic triggers, you will quickly train your brain that bedtime means sleep. This is where pure essential oils and essential oil blends for sleep come in. 

Essential Oils and Sleep

The beauty of essential oils for winding down is that they perform both functions. They have powerful properties that induce feelings of relaxation, and they emit glorious smells that can be essential parts of your nightly routine. The Sleep Foundation recommends some essential oils, read on to learn which ones. 

Clary Sage

Clary sage is an herbaceous shrub native to the Mediterranean regions of Europe. Clary sage is thought to calm the mind and body to lead to deep relaxation.

Cedarwood

One of the active compounds found in cedarwood is cedrol, a chemical known well for its role in your body’s fight or flight stimulus. 

Roman Chamomile

Roman chamomile helps promote a relaxed state of mind. 

Bergamot

Bergamot’s fresh citrus properties help elicit an atmosphere of relaxation. 

Lavender

The crème-de-la-crème of essential oils for sleep is lavender. Lavender is well-known and highly studied. The active compounds found in lavender that promote a calm body and relaxed mind are called linalool and linalyl acetate. 

Some other oils commonly used for better sleep are sandalwood, marjoram, and ylang ylang oils. Or, simply try our specially formulated essential oil sleep blend, Lullaby. It is a powerful combination of the best relaxing oils that you can get. 

Aromatherapy Before Bed

To get the most out of these essential oils for sleep and anxiety, include aromatherapy as a key part of your nightly routine. There are many ways to utilize these oils and blends. One way is to include a few drops of oil in with your nightly bath. Aromatherapy baths provide twice the benefits because baths alone are powerful sleep tools. Soaking in a warm bath can be soothing. Baths also help you sleep by reducing your core temperature. The warm water of your bath powers up your thermoregulatory system, moving your blood circulation away from your core and into your extremities. A lowered core temperature will help you fall asleep and stay asleep. 

In addition to the bath, there are several other aromatherapy techniques. One technique is to use an oil roller to apply sleep oils onto your wrists, temples, bottoms of your feet, and behind your ears. Just be sure to combine the essential oils with a suitable carrier oil in the correct ratios. Another technique is to saturate diffuser sticks in your oil of choice and leave them on the table to waft near your bed. You can also keep a vapor diffuser with an automatic shut-off near you as you wind down and drift off to sleep. Finally, try putting a few drops of sleep oil onto your pillow. It will provide a gentle release of aromatic properties throughout the night. 

If you have a difficult time relaxing at night, you definitely want to see what essential oils for sleep can do for you. With the combined affects that sleepy time essential oils provide of relaxation and olfactory sleep triggers, you will be sleeping like a baby and waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed before you know it!