Aromatherapy in the fight against insomnia: how incense and essential oils promote sound sleep

Hard work, stress, prob­lems in fam­i­ly life affect the ner­vous sys­tem, and, first of all, affect the qual­i­ty of sleep. A sound, healthy sleep last­ing 7–8 hours a day is the key to a good mood for the whole next day. A night spent in painful thoughts and futile attempts to fall asleep can­not pass with­out a trace for the body. And if insom­nia is a chron­ic prob­lem that tor­ments a per­son every day, then his life becomes dull and sad.

In the fight against insom­nia, all means are good, and every­one choos­es for him­self what suits him best. Of course, to diag­nose dis­eases of the ner­vous sys­tem, as a pos­si­ble cause for sleep dis­tur­bance, it is bet­ter to vis­it a neu­rol­o­gist. He will find out if there are any spe­cif­ic dis­eases that pre­vent a per­son from get­ting enough sleep, and will give rec­om­men­da­tions for treat­ment. If insom­nia occurs due to over­strain of the ner­vous sys­tem and increased emo­tion­al­i­ty, then the doc­tor pre­scribes var­i­ous seda­tives or sleep­ing pills. For those peo­ple who are not inclined to take med­i­cines in cas­es where they are not nec­es­sary for life, but at the same time suf­fer from insom­nia, aro­mather­a­py comes to the res­cue.

Rules for the use of essential oils

The use of essen­tial oils for sleep dis­or­ders is a rather ancient method of alter­na­tive ther­a­py. How­ev­er, aro­mather­a­py is a real sci­ence, and essen­tial oils are com­plex sub­stances in their struc­ture, so there are cer­tain rules for their use.

• Each per­son indi­vid­u­al­ly per­ceives the aro­mas of essen­tial oils, so there are no clear fixed com­bi­na­tions that suit absolute­ly every­one. Any­one can find the per­fect com­bi­na­tion for them­selves exper­i­men­tal­ly.

• If the com­bi­na­tion of oils is unpleas­ant for you, you should not endure it just because you read this recipe on the Inter­net or heard good reviews about it.

• Do not exper­i­ment with new essen­tial oils at night. There is a pos­si­bil­i­ty that instead of sound sleep it will not be at all.

• Do not com­bine more than 5 essen­tial oils at the same time. The opti­mal amount of essen­tial oils in one mix­ture is 3–4.

• If you expe­ri­ence any dis­com­fort or signs of aller­gy: skin rash, watery eyes, cough­ing, sneez­ing, and nasal dis­charge, imme­di­ate­ly stop aro­mather­a­py, take an antial­ler­gic agent and ven­ti­late the room well.

• Essen­tial oils are con­traindi­cat­ed for chil­dren under 3 years old, preg­nant women, peo­ple with severe dis­eases of the ner­vous sys­tem (epilep­sy, neo­plasms of the brain) or men­tal ill­ness­es suf­fer­ing from dis­eases of the res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem (chron­ic bron­chi­tis or bronchial asth­ma).

How can aromatherapy be done?

There are many ways to use essen­tial oils for insom­nia. Every­one can choose for them­selves the one that will best help him relax and fall into a deep sleep.

• The use of aro­mather­a­py.

It can be pur­chased at spe­cial­ty stores or phar­ma­cies. Thanks to the slow evap­o­ra­tion of the oils, the room will be filled with a fra­grant aro­ma, which will cre­ate a feel­ing of com­fort, cozi­ness and give a feel­ing of com­plete secu­ri­ty and tran­quil­i­ty.

• Appli­ca­tion of essen­tial oils on var­i­ous mate­ri­als.

If you do not have an aro­ma lamp or you are not sure that you are ready to spend mon­ey on it, you can apply a mix­ture of oils on a nap­kin or a piece of cloth and put it near the bed. The most ide­al option is to place them on a bat­tery, then their evap­o­ra­tion rate will be greater.

• Aro­ma medal­lions.

These are spe­cial bot­tles into which you can drop a few drops of one or a mix­ture of essen­tial oils and hang them next to the bed, or wear them around your neck, inhal­ing their mag­i­cal aro­ma.

• Bath with aro­mat­ic oils.

This is one of the most pleas­ant ways of aro­mather­a­py and is great for peo­ple who have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to relax in the bath in the evening. For this oil, you can drip direct­ly into the water, or dilute them in the base cos­met­ic oil (olive, peach, jojo­ba) and add this mix­ture to the bath­room. In this case, the effect will be dou­ble, both for the skin and for calm­ing the ner­vous sys­tem.

• Mas­sage with aro­ma oils.

The main prin­ci­ple of essen­tial oils: in no case should they be applied direct­ly to the skin, as this is fraught with burns. These are high­ly con­cen­trat­ed sub­stances, so they are not suit­able for direct use. It is best to take one or more cos­met­ic oils (peach, grape seed, jojo­ba, almond, etc.) and enrich them with a com­bi­na­tion of essen­tial oils. After prepa­ra­tion, you can begin to mas­sage using this mix­ture. You can do mas­sage your­self, involve some­one from your fam­i­ly (opti­mal­ly, if it is a spouse) or a spe­cial­ist in this process.

What essential oils are good for insomnia

Sleep dis­or­ders are dif­fer­ent, and for each case, cer­tain essen­tial oils are more effec­tive.

• In order to relax after a long and hard work­ing day and calm the ner­vous sys­tem, essen­tial oils of vanil­la, juniper, ylang-ylang, clary sage are suit­able.

• If there are prob­lems with falling asleep, and dur­ing the night the sleep is deep and long, then you can try using cit­rus aro­ma oils (tan­ger­ine, orange, lemon, grape­fruit), myrrh, cedar, cypress.

• If there are no prob­lems falling asleep, but dur­ing the night you wake up repeat­ed­ly and can­not fall asleep, then the essen­tial oils of frank­in­cense, laven­der, chamomile, and neroli would be an ide­al solu­tion.

The most successful essential oil combinations for sleep disorders

The fol­low­ing blends of essen­tial oils can be used for insom­nia:

• 3 drops chamomile, 2 drops laven­der;

• 4 drops chamomile, 3 drops patchouli, 2 drops gera­ni­um;

• 3 drops juniper, 2 drops laven­der, 2 drops myrrh;

• 3 drops of berg­amot, 2 drops of san­dal­wood, 3 drops of cedar;

• 3 drops of valer­ian, 2 drops of roda, 1 drop of lemon balm.

How­ev­er, we repeat: essen­tial oils are not med­i­cines, and there are no ide­al rec­om­men­da­tions that are suit­able for any per­son and will act unam­bigu­ous­ly. Aro­mather­a­py is a del­i­cate process, its effect is very sub­jec­tive. The same essen­tial oils can bring plea­sure, and can only cause dis­com­fort.

If insom­nia tor­ments for a long time, it can be one of the symp­toms of a seri­ous ill­ness, for the treat­ment of which a doc­tor and med­i­cines are need­ed. Be sure to con­sult a spe­cial­ist.