Essential Oils for Insomnia

Lack of sleep wreaks havoc on your body and mind. It reduces mental clarity and your ability to focus. Not getting enough sleep also lowers your pain threshold so you feel pain everywhere.

Insomnia is recognized as the inability to fall asleep, or stay asleep for a long period of time. It’s a condition that affects almost every single person at one point or another during their lifetime.

No one really knows the exact reason why people suffer from insomnia, since the reasons can vary greatly from one person to the next. Here are some of the most well-known triggers for insomnia:

• Stress

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Chronic illnesses

• Some medications

Treatment methods are varied, including pills, meditation, white noise, dimmed lights. But there is one way of getting you the sleep you need without any chemicals or unreliable methods; essential oils.

Through a process known as distillation, scientists are able to get their hands on oils found naturally in plants. Distillation requires the purification of a plant’s natural oils through both heating and cooling; the former causes evaporation while the latter results in condensation. Through this process, they are able to separate and extract essential oils.

Aromatherapy is a widely-known treatment method that uses scented essential oils bearing the signature scent of the plant from which they came.

Simple smells can trigger such powerful emotions and memories that have a direct impact on our nervous systems. That’s why aromatherapy has been used for centuries to treat a myriad of health conditions, among them being insomnia.

It’s by far one of the best-known essential oils for its relaxing and calming effects. Studies show that lavender oil calms the nervous system, lowers blood pressure. Lavender helps reduce anxiety and stress levels which helps you fall asleep and also enjoy a full night’s quality sleep.

Another popular choice to treat insomnia is chamomile. This essential oil has many therapeutic properties, such as sedative and relaxing properties. It’s known for its sweet, herbaceous scent that has a soothing effect. Combined with lavender, it makes a more potent relaxant to help prepare you for a good night’s sleep.

There are many types of marjoram oil, but the one that works really great to treat insomnia is sweet marjoram. This is due to its calming and soothing properties. It helps lower blood pressure, ease hyperactivity and hypertension, all which help you enjoy a restful sleep. It’s known as the ‘herb of happiness’ to the Romans and to the Greeks, it’s known as the ‘joy of the mountains’.

Just as with chamomile, you can blend sweet marjoram essential oil with lavender to get a highly effective insomnia treatment. You can blend it with a little bit of coconut oil (one type of carrier oil to help smooth out the oil on the skin and blend it more easily).

One of the most potent anti-anxiety essential oils around, bergamot calms the nervous system, lowers blood pressure and quells those restless nights. It helps with digestion, which can be a factor when treating insomnia.

Bergamot is also a disinfectant, which inhibits the growth of fungi and viruses. Bergamot actually comes from the citrus family and the oil is derived from its rind. It’s safe for adults, children and pregnant women; bergamot can be inhaled or applied topically.

One of the great advantages of cedarwood is that it promotes the healthy functioning of the pineal gland, which is the gland responsible for releasing the body’s sleep hormone (melatonin). You can mix it with lavender or chamomile to help induce a restful night.