Essential oils have been used for centuries as natural remedies for a variety of aspects of health. Each kind provides unique benefits. Some provide energy, some are antiviral, and some are relaxing. If you don’t already use essential oils to supplement your health routine, they are a great addition. Certain essential oils are beneficial for sleep. Here, we’ll cover a few of them and how you can use them to calm your mind and get a great night’s sleep.
1. Lavender
When you think of sleep and relaxation, lavender is often the first essential oil that comes to mind. It’s the most popular for these purposes, and for good reason. It’s long been used as a natural sleep remedy and is calming for individuals with anxiety. Lavender is also a pain reliever, so it can help relieve pain that prevents restful sleep.
Use a few drops on your pillow before you sleep at night, or get some lavender spray to spray around your room. You can buy culinary-grade lavender and put a drop or two in a cup of chamomile tea before bed to boost relaxation and fall asleep easier.
2. Vanilla
Vanilla’s scent is generally calming and in essential oil form, it promotes restfulness. It has sedative properties, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. It reduces hyperactivity, lowers blood pressure, relieves anxiety and boosts mood. As a result, vanilla can help if you’re the type of person who can’t turn off their thoughts and worries at night. Using an oil diffuser with vanilla spreads the scent throughout the room and can continue throughout the night.
3. Valerian
Valerian root is one of the most powerful supplements and essential oils for sleep. In oil form, it’s extremely calming and is great for promoting tiredness and restful sleep. It’s often a treatment for insomnia, if that’s a concern for you.
One note about valerian in essential oil form is that many people don’t like the smell. It doesn’t smell as pleasant as other oils. If you’re diffusing it, combining it with a scent like lavender or vanilla can help mask it. Otherwise, you can get it in pill form or as part of a blend of tea. Whichever way you choose to use it, valerian will help you fall asleep if that’s a struggle for you. Valerian is the strongest sleep aid of the three, so it’s definitely one to try.
Many essential oil companies sell sleep blends combining two or more of these oils along with other supplemental oils. If you’re new to essential oils for sleep, this is a way to get the benefits of multiple of them without buying them all individually.
