Issues with sleeping? Aromatherapy can help you.

by Jacqui Christie | Jul 18, 2023 | Aromapothecary

I have so many customers report that they have issues getting to sleep or once they are asleep they awaken in the night and cannot get back to sleep.

This is something I personally had not encountered until I reached menopause. I can now also totally relate to everyone who experiences trouble sleeping. However there are many aromatherapy approaches and blends that can help ease it though, also combining it with meditation, mindfulness is a powerful combination to tackle the problem.

I offer online many ready made products that have helped so many clients, including my Pulse Point Roller Balls. The Restful Evening pulse point is helpful to soothe you before bed. The Nervous Exhaustion which is de-stressing, and so can ease you into a better place to allow sleep. They are so easy to use and very portable for travel and in your bag at work too.

My I Am Calm range After Shower Bath & Body Oils and Pulse Points – Love, Joy and Meditation are also incredibly helpful for you depending on the root cause of the sleeplessness, disturbed sleep.

Love blend comforts you in times of grief, unsettled emotions, and with troubles in relationships.

Joy blend is as it suggests a huge uplift and balancer of moods and emotions. I am using it to help me with the hormonal imbalances that I am experiencing right now. I use it after my bath every evening, which is also keeping my skin wonderfully soft and supple.

Meditation. blend can be used along with your meditation practice to allow a easier path for the thoughts of the day to clear through and each a quieter place in your mind, which of course will assist your route to sleep. Or just utilise on its own to calm and deepen your breath.

All these blends can be used in After Shower, Bath & Body Oil format too, that can be used in the bath or after shower or as a massage oil. These products are ready blended for you just to use. I have no preservatives in these products, they are pure aromatherapy blends, always my first choice. See our Aromatherapy Bath & Body Oil range and our I Am Calm Range.

The artwork for my I Am Calm range was designed and drawn by artist, wild therapy therapist, and fellow meditation teacher Andrea Hobbs which I spotlight on her many skills in another blog

Adding in little moments of calm each day with aromatherapy do not need to be long periods of time. Literally just a few minutes a day, perhaps as you awaken or at lunchtime, or after work or before bed. Wherever you can find a moment to allow your mind and body to rest, will be invaluable to your wellbeing. I can definitely testify to the power of these two tools of calm being used together to enhance the effect of each.

You do not need a special position to sit in or special clothes to wear or to be entirely zen. There will likely be lots of thoughts happen while you take that moment, and that is perfect! Your mind needs an opportunity to process all the stuff going on in there as you rush around each day. Just take time to allow the thoughts to come and go. Exercising your focus muscle – to return time and again to a restful place, when the mind pulls you in the other direction. I will go into more about this simple form of meditation in a future blog.

So looking at how you can blend your own bath and body oils, or use your blends on your pulse points to help with issues with sleeping. I will share some of my favourite blends that I have used with clients for help with sleep.

The first oil that everyone thinks of with sleep is lavender. I have had over the years had quite a number of people saying ‘I don’t like lavender’. But the scent they are recalling actually isn’t the same as the true lavender, lavandula angustifolia from France, that is my first choice. This is due to the powerful, soft note that I feel that this lavender provides and is perfect for therapy.

Our own lavender in the UK is fabulous, but has (for me) a sharper note. There are a number of varieties of lavender out there, some are more suitable to other treatments, such as lavandula spica, which is excellent as an analgesic and expectorant properties. Another common one that you may see is Lavandin a blend between true lavender and lavandula spica.

If you don’t like the scent of lavender, my personal choice would be sweet orange oil. I use it a lot and in products. It has been a favourite since I first used it in training. Very gentle and excellent for the very young and the much older generation too.

Roman chamomile is another definite for aiding sleep, but I would always blend it (as I have in the products mentioned above), it makes a very comfortable companion with lavender. If you don’t like too much sweetness in a blend, this is perfect.

Sandalwood is excellent for relaxation of the nerves. I use it in my Meditation blend, as it is ideal for this and it adds a soothing effect to any blend it is part of. I use an australian sandalwood, santalum spicatum for ethical reasons.

Two other favourites of mine for trouble sleeping are frankincense and neroli. An incredible combination together, bringing in the physical effects of relaxation, clearing the mind and nurture and self care, with a gentle uplift. Neroli is very much known as an aromatherapy treatment for insomnia, but frankincense is not so often put in that category. I have found it incredibly helpful. In most cases the client was coming with an extremely busy mind, full of constant thoughts dealing with a problem/stressful situation. Either right now or from something that happened in their past. So frankincense is fabulous to slow down the breath, calm the thoughts, and free the mind to allow healing/rest to begin.

I will also mention rose geranium here, that I use in my products for sleep. It is a fabulous balancer of mood, hormones (and skin). I find a small amount in a blend is extremely helpful to encourage balance in the body and mind.

A few suggested blends are lavender (3 drops), roman chamomile (1 drop), sandalwood (2 drops)

Another is Neroli (2 drops), frankincense (2 drops), sweet orange (2 drops).

Or lavender (2 drops), sandalwood (2 drops), rose geranium (1 drop), roman chamomile (1 drop)

For trouble sleeping, you can make up these blends (multiply equally for larger quantities). Use as two/three drops on a tissue by your pillow at night, or on a tissue by you as you relax in the evening. To use on the body always blend with a carrier oil. For the above blends use a 5ml spoon of carrier oil, such as sunflower, sweet almond, jojoba. Or for a richer (more moisturising) blend rosehip, evening primrose oil. Remember if you multiply the essential oil blend also multiply the carrier oil equally at the same time.

I hope that this information on essential oils for sleep issues has been helpful for you. If you have a complex medical history/medications always check with your GP before using essential oils, or ask a qualified aromatherapist.