Welcome back to the 7 weeks to the best possible sleep series.
In previous weeks we have covered the most effective ways to improve sleep.
However... they are also the most boring things you can do to help you sleep better.
So this week, we thought we would do the total opposite.
This week is all about a topic that may not even be effective at helping you sleep better.
I'm certainly not going to try and find studies about this topic and convince you it's effective.
But that's not the point.
This week is more about making your sleep experience nicer, better, more enjoyable.
The fun stuff.
If you want to have the best possible sleep, wouldn't making it the most pleasant and enjoyable environment be apart of that?
So let's begin today's topic:
Aromatherapy
What is aromatherapy?
The idea is that certain scents can help you with certain things.
For example, some scents can be very relaxing, pleasant and help you to sleep better.
There are a number of scents that claim to help with this.
Here is a quick summary of a few of them.
Lavender Marjoram
Lavender is the most well known essential oil for sleep and relaxation.
WebMD also states that studies have been done showing lavender can reduce symptoms on anxiety.
German Chamomile
Chamomile is famous for helping with sleep.
It is more commonly found in sleep teas, but it is also effective in it essential oil form.
Ylang Ylang
Due to it's pleasant smell, Ylang Ylang is often an ingredient found in perfumes, such as Chanel No 5.
However, not only does Ylang Ylang smell amazing, it has also been shown in studies to boost mood, reduce depression and alleviate anxiety.
One study even found that by significantly reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure rates as well as heart rate in healthy men, inhalation of ylang ylang had a sedative effect.
Clary Sage
It is a flowering herb native to the Mediterranean Basin.
The essential oil has a clean, refreshing scent.
Clary Sage was traditionally used as an eye treatment but new research is starting to show that it can also reduce stress and help with depression.
So how can you use these scents to help you sleep better?
There are a couple of different ways, the first is:
Try a Humidifier
You could order these essential oils and add a couple drops to the water in our humidifier.
The humidifier will create a cool relaxing and pleasant smelling steam before you sleep.
View Essential Oil Humidifier →Or there's another option:
Try our Sleep Spray
Our sleep spray actually already contains all four of the essential oils mentioned above, as well as Frankincense to make it smell even better.
The essential oils used to create the unique scent of our pillow spray not only smell amazing, they were chosen and blended specifically to calm and relax you to sleep after a long and stressful shift.
They are made by an aromatherapist in Melbourne. We chose her to make it because she was truly passionate about creating the best calming sleep spray blend for us, and it showed when compared to the others we tried.
She didn't dilute lavender in water and call it a spray, nor did she blend just a couple of fragrances. She carefully chose 4 high quality essential oils, all known to be calming, relaxing and sleep inducing.
She then perfected the ratios creating the most pleasant blend we think you will ever smell.
She now creates all of our sprays for us right here in Australia, never compromising in quality.
If you want to experience it for yourself, you can get yours here:
View Sleep Spray →Conclusion
There isn't really much more to say about aromatherapy, if you want to try it, you can order some essential oils and a humidifier or something similar, or you can order our sleep spray which already has a beautiful blend of sleep essential oils and spray it on your pillow before you sleep.
Bonus Tip - Tea
Since this week is all about aromas, relaxing herbs, and creating a beautiful sleep experience, we thought it would also be right to mention tea.
There is nothing better than relaxing before bed with a hot cup of sleep tea.
Studies have shown that certain herbs can aid with things like insomnia, anxiety and trouble sleeping.
Chamomile and Lavender, which are also mentioned above are not only great essential oils to help with sleep, they are great in tea as well.
There are also other herbs which are used in tea to help with sleep, here is a couple of them:
Passionflower
Passionflower has traditionally been used to relieve anxiety and induce sleep. It’s even touted as a natural remedy to insomnia due to its natural sedative properties.
A 2011 study discovered that people who drank passionflower tea daily had a significantly better quality of sleep than people who drank a placebo tea. They actually found passionflower to be just as effective as Ambien.
Lemon Balm Leaf
Lemon balm tea has been used to aid sleep and reduce stress since the Middle Ages.
A recent study showed that people suffering from anxiety and sleep disorders saw a significant improvement in their sleep after using lemon balm.
Scullcap
The leaves of American skullcap have been used in traditional herbal medicine as a sedative and to treat conditions like anxiety for centuries.
It’s thought that American skullcap positively impacts mood and reduces anxiety by stimulating gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that helps calm nerves. This is similar to how many anti-anxiety medications work.
One study found that American skullcap was shown to boost mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety.
Sleep Tea
As soon as we learned how effective and proven some of these herbal teas were at improving sleep, we knew we had to formulate the most effective, relaxing and enjoyable sleep tea we could.
There are a number of herbal tea ingredients mentioned in this article which can help with sleep.
Our Sleep Tea actually contains all of them.
Chamomile, Lavender, Passionflower, Lemon Balm, and Scullcap.
Our delicious and relaxing sleep tea was blended right here in Australia.
It's naturally caffeine free and we used organically grown herbs where possible.
If you would like to relax and unwind before bed with our Sleep Tea you can check it out here:
Summary
1. Try our Essential Oil Humidifier
2. Try our Sleep Spray
3. Try our Sleep Tea
