How to use Essential Oils - Sleep

Sleep

We all know forty winks is good for us, heck, I love sleep! Who doesn’t like waking up after a solid eight hours feeling warm and fluffy? Yet sometimes sleep just doesn’t come easy. What’s more annoying, particularly in our busy modern lives, is that the more we try to control our sleep the less control we have over it.

Have you ever been led there thinking ‘why can’t I sleep?’ ‘Why am I not tired?’ ‘What if I try this?’ ‘Maybe I’m doing it wrong’ ‘If I don’t fall asleep soon tomorrow is going to be horrific’ and so on... You get the drill.

There’s even a whole list of unfavourable side effects of not having enough sleep which, if you’re lacking in nightly snooze hours, only makes the stress of trying to sleep worse. Those who suffer from stress and/or lack of sleep only know these viscous cycles too well.

But it’s not all doom and gloom!

No one likes a party pooper so here’s a few ways of using Essential oils that’ll get you back to being nice and calm before bed so you drop off like a log.

Bathtime:

“Add a drop of lavender to your bath and soon, you’ll soak yourself calm.” Manny, Black Books

If you haven’t seen Black Books... first of all you should. A good laugh goes a long way in calming the nervous system. Secondly, these wise words from the hapless Bill Bailey are well founded. People from various civilizations have been using baths for thousands of years as a means of curing/relieving various ailments.

Adding 5 or 6 drops of Aroma Energy Lavender Essential Oil or our Sweet Dreams Oil Blend to your hot (but not too hot) bath will help relax body and mind. Baths help release tense muscles and improves circulation. It’s also a good time to put down the phone and pick up a book too which is another way of switching off from the busy world and slipping into something slower and more comfortable.

Applying Topically:

You can also use essential oils on the body, although this comes with a caveat. Aroma Energy Essential Oils are strong and, like most other Pure Essential Oils, will need to be diluted in before using directly on the skin. A good rule of thumb to get you started is to add 3 - 5 drops of Aroma Energy Essential Oil to every 10ml of cold pressed carrier oil, lotion, vegetable butter or other natural lipid/moisturizer.

The amount used will vary slightly depending on what you’re mixing it with. Making your own massage oil is fun and you can play around with different carrier oils and blends.

Where to apply them is also important. Don’t go using them internally unless given advice by a medical professional. The pressure points are a good place to start generally and have pretty fast acting effects. Different parts of the body are linked with different effects/symptoms, using it on your temples/parts of the face help relieve congestion and headaches. In regards to sleep, applying lotion/massage oil to the back of your neck and bottoms of feet can be a good way to release the calming effects of the oil.

If you’re unsure of the strength of your diluted oil, the bottom of the feet is a good place to test. Not to mention massaging the feet, also known as Reflexology, is also just about the best thing ever.

Some people like to apply the oil to the pillow or sheets instead of the body which is another good method as it acts like a diffuser. However, it’s worth noting that the drips can leave marks on bedding so you may want to put drops onto a towel next to the bed or something similar. 

Which Oil?

The most common reason we use Essential Oils is to relax and by far the best options for getting ready for sleep involve Lavender, Bergamot, Roman Chamomile and Ylang Ylang.

Lavender and Bergamot in particular are rich in linalool and linalyl acetate, compounds that have well-known relaxing properties and Chamomile has been used for centuries and is a well used in teas which are associated with relieving insomnia, stress, and nervous tension.

If you’re still not sure which oil to go for then why not try the lot? Check out our Sweet Dreams Roller Ball which have been specifically blended to help take you off to snoozeville.

Go on... Treat yourself.