Essential oils seem like they’re everywhere. Brands say to put them in your hair to help it grow, your scalp to relieve discomfort, and your skin to help heal wounds. Now, people turning to essential oil blends for sleep. And the reason why circles back to the benefits of natural scents. Natural fragrances are known to help stimulate your brain and memory and deliver a wealth of mental health benefits. It's not a new phenomenon, either. Essential oil blends have been celebrated since the days of ancient Egypt. So how can the fragrances that essential oils give off help you achieve a more restful night's sleep? Let’s start with understanding more about essential oils, in general.
What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are highly concentrated extracts from potentially beneficial plants. Of course, the word "potential" is important to emphasize here. While many plants produce essential oil, not all can be extracted, and not all carry such beneficial properties.
Essential oils are known for their therapeutic benefits and are commonly used in natural and alternative health practices such as aromatherapy. They can be obtained either by steaming or cold pressing. They each have different effects depending on the plant they are extracted from. While essential oils and the term aromatherapy are often used interchangeably, not all essential oils have a pleasant smell.
The ones that do, however, are often used in meditation and for sleep. These fragrances are thought to make your bedroom more conducive to quality sleep and enhance the surrounding environment.
A study found that essential oils improve the sleep quality of elderly patients. Additional research finds that they can improve sleep quality among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Even among young, healthy sleepers, the essential oil has been shown to positively impact sleep.
A systematic review of studies regarding the inhalation of essential oils concluded that they may be beneficial to people with mild to moderate sleep disturbances.
9 Best Essential Oils for Sleep
Using essential oil for aromatherapy is a great way to secure a good night's sleep. But not all essential oils function in the same way. This makes it difficult to pinpoint what exactly you need to get for a specific reason. Keep reading for more information. We've gone ahead and handpicked the best essential oils for restful sleep so you don't have to.
Best Essential Oil Diffuser Blends For Sleep
Now that we have your essential oil list covered, it's time to tackle essential oil diffuser blends for sleep. This is tricky, because as much as oils like lavender smell nice on their own, they don't all mesh well together. They're also not all good for sleep, so it's important to be careful not to add in an essential oil that may make you more alert, for example.
To help you fall asleep and stay asleep, we collected essential oil blends for sleep that you can just drop into your diffuser as easy as one, two, three.
How Can Essential Oils Help You Sleep?
Essential oils are typically found in aromatic plants and these plants usually contain volatile compounds. While each kind of essential oil is different and has its own set of chemical properties, all of them contain terpenes.
Terpenes are what give plants their aromas, and when extracted they determine what the essential oil will smell like as well. They are also known as "isoprenoids" and are largely responsible for the fragrance, taste, and pigments of plants.
They have many forms and varieties and depending on the plant they're extracted from, they also have different functions. For example, terpenes in tea tree oil are used to treat cutaneous infections while terpenes in cannabis plants possess psychoactive properties and are used against many infectious diseases.
That said, the way they affect the human body can be influenced by how they are taken. The method you use to take essential oil is important in determining the mechanism of action or the way your body will process the chemicals they have.
Common Ways to Use Essential Oils
There are many ways to use essential oils. Below, we will discuss the three most common ways they can be applied and impact your sleep.
Inhalation
Using essential oils for sleep is largely determined by the scents they produce, courtesy of their terpenes. The way they work has to do with how scents influence the human brain.
When essential oils make contact with your body, they impact the olfactory system in particular. Remember, the olfactory system is the bodily structure that serves your sense of smell.
Fragrances both directly and indirectly affect the psychological and physiological conditions of humans. Essential oils work through the olfactory system by modulating the secretion of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin which regulate the mood. Both dopamine and serotonin play a role in regulating sleep, which can help explain why essential oils have sedative properties.
Inhaling essential oil can also work by clearing your airways to help you relax and breathe easier, allowing you to arrive at sleep even faster. You can do this by either using essential oil diffuser blends, via dry evaporation, steaming, or using a spray.
Topical Application
Another way to use essential oil is by directly applying it to the skin. You can either massage it to your skin, add it to your bath, use it for gargling, or apply it to a compress. Of course, it's important to note that essential oils cannot be directly applied to any part of your body without being diluted.
Again, essential oil is a concentrated extract or the essence of a certain plant. Once pure, they are too potent and may cause adverse reactions to your body. This is why to use it topically, it's important to dilute them first in water or carrier oils to lessen their potency.
When applied to the skin, the chemical components of essential oils can directly activate gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors and transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. GABA is a neurotransmitter that inhibits certain brain signals and decreases activity in your nervous system. This produces a calming effect that can help alleviate stress, fear, and anxiety.
TRP channels, meanwhile, serve as temperature, chemical, and osmotic sensors. They are widely recognized for their role in sensory nervous systems and are involved in the formation of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, temperature, and pain sensation.
Applying essential oil to the skin can have a variety of beneficial effects depending on where you apply them. They may be able to relieve tension in the skull to relieve headaches. They can also help ease stomach problems such as cramps. That said, you shouldn't apply them to sensitive areas like your eyes or genitals.
Conclusion
Sleep is important for both mind and body. Essential oils can provide alternative treatments to various ailments that impede sleep. Unlike prescription sleep medications, they are safe and will have no adverse side effects when taken properly and in diluted amounts. They also won't give you a groggy, hangover feeling in the morning.
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