Between 10% and 30% of adults struggle with chronic insomnia; women tend to suffer more than men. Help is at hand for those bleary-eyed and exhausted from lack of sleep.
Create your tailor-made Sleep Kit with essential oils like Lavender, Frankincense, Vetiver, Marjoram, and Roman Chamomile. Choose from products that tickle your fancies, like Aromatic Bath Soaks, Shower Steamers, Body Butter, and Body Oils. Then, add one of the professional, tried, and tested essential oils blends.
Do you need restful sleep, deep sleep, or refreshing sleep blends? We have a product and an essential oil blend to suit everyone. First, create the perfect environment with diffusers or room sprays, then use luscious bath oil or a shower steamer.
Finally, lavish yourself with a decadent body butter or dry oil and get the best night's sleep you ever had.
Sleep is intrinsic to our well-being and ability to function effectively throughout the day. Getting enough sleep can quickly upset the balance of our equilibrium. Sleep deprivation over a while can profoundly affect our physical body.
According to The Sleep Foundation, "Between 10% and 30% of adults struggle with chronic insomnia. It is believed between 30% and 48% of older adults experience insomnia. Women have a lifetime risk of insomnia that is as much as 40% higher than that of men."
We can give ourselves a foot up the sleepy ladder by using essential oils in various ways before bedtime. It can help us sleep deeper and longer and aid in getting a good night of restful and rejuvenating sleep.
What is a Sleep Kit With Essential Oils?
A commercial sleep kit can contain various items; some have sleepy sprays, bath salts, and scented eye masks, and others might have scented rollerballs and bath bubbles. The point is that there are many variations, and while some claim to have essential oils in them, often, it is the tiniest proportion and boosted with synthetic fragrances that have no active properties.
This is where designing your Sleep Kit with essential oils is a no-brainer. It gives you complete control over every ingredient, and you can tailor-make it to your preference.
You choose the essential oils that resonate with you the most. Most commercial preparations contain Lavender, but what if you hate Lavender? We will provide you with many other essential oil choices, and you will find something beautifully soothing to help you sleep better and get more restful sleep.
You can choose to include the products you are most likely to use. What's the point of comprising a bubble bath if you only have a shower? Design your kit around what you will use most often and find the most useful to your bedtime routine.
Benefits of Using Essential Oil For Sleep
Using essential oils to help people sleep starts with utilizing them to bring relaxation to both body and mind; this leads to deeper sleep and reduced fatigue.
People often prefer the natural approach of essential oils to sleeping pills because they don't tend to cause drowsiness or the side effects often associated with sleep medication.
If you are new to using essential oils to aid your sleep, you might be surprised at how quickly they work and their ability to soothe the body and mind.
Making essential oils part of your bedtime routine can do several things. It can:
- Improve your sleeping patterns.
- Induce deeper sleep.
- Reduce insomnia.
- Train your brain to a specific smell for falling asleep.
Essential Oils That Promote Sleep
Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula angustifolia)
You knew it was going to be here! It is used the world over to induce relaxation and aid sleep. Inhaling Lavender essential oil can help alleviate mild insomnia, especially in women. Lavender is so effective that it can improve sleep even before insomnia or sleep disorders manifest.
Studies on Lavender showed that there was "a significant beneficial influence on quality and duration of sleep and improved general mental and physical health without causing any unwanted sedative or other drug-specific effects."
Roman Chamomile Essential Oil (Anthemis nobilis L.)
Roman Chamomile is another beautiful addition to our Sleep Kit with essential oils. Deeply soothing and relaxing, it can also reduce some of our anxiety and is used widely to alleviate generalized anxiety disorders.
A 2013 study found that a mix of Lavender, roman chamomile, and neroli essential oils effectively reduced the anxiety levels and increased the sleep quality of ICU patients.
Anecdotal evidence has long indicated that chamomile can help improve sleep quality. These claims are being reinforced with recent research, suggesting that chamomile is a safe, natural way to help induce sleep.
It is certainly one that we recommend for inclusion in your Sleep Kit with essential oils for a restful night.
Frankincense Essential Oil (Boswellia serrata)
Profoundly soothing, and there is always something magical about using Frankincense with its sacred history and its millennia of use across the ancient world.
In the UK, Frankincense essential oil was used in a study alongside other essential oils in aroma sticks. The aim was to improve the sleep of cancer patients. '94% of patients reported using their aroma stick to help them sleep, and 92% reported that they would continue to do so'. Another fantastic outcome for essential oils.
Aromatherapists well utilize Frankincense to reduce stress and anxiety, and recent research supports that use.
Marjoram Essential Oil (Origanum majorana)
This is the one essential oil that I turn to when my legs feel restless at night. Its nervine effects (probably from the chemical constituent Terpine -4-ol) can help relax the nerves contributing to my restless legs.
Occasionally, I get restless in my arms as a side effect of some medication I take, and sleeping with it is impossible. I mix two drops of lavender and sweet marjoram essential oils in 10ml of carrier oil and rub them firmly into my arms, with the massaging effect as crucial as the essential oils. Twenty minutes later, I am back in bed and drifting to sleep.
I'm one of many with plenty to say about Marjoram essential oil. A study on how essential oils can improve sleep quality found that 'Sweet Marjoram contains several compounds which aid sleep. These include linalyl acetate which calms the emotion, linalool which stabilizes the cardiovascular system and relaxes the body. Monoterpenes (such as a-pinene, y-pinene, and p-cymene) which have anti-inflammatory and mild antibacterial properties and terpinen-4-ol which helps dilate blood vessels and regulate the nervous system.'
Vetiver Essential Oil (Vetiveria zizanoides)
I saved my favorite for last. This essential oil is used widely for its antiseptic, antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory properties. It is a potent sedative and soothes the nervous system.
I use this most nights in my bath along with Ylang Ylang and Lavender essential oils, and since introducing it into my sleep routine, my sleep has improved in quality and duration.
Unfortunately, there needs to be more human research on Vetiver essential oil. Still, studies conducted on rodents found that when the subjects inhaled vetiver essential oil, they showed signs of relaxation.
Furthermore, other studies done on humans indicate that vetiver oil may help improve breathing patterns during sleep. Not getting enough sleep is a significant trigger for stress, anxiety, and depression, so vetiver may help reduce these symptoms.
How to Make a Sleep Kit with Essential Oils
The table below contains a list of aromatherapy preparations with essential oils and products that you could use to make up your Sleep Kit.
I recommend choosing one from each section.
They link to previous articles where you will find all the details you need to create your base product. You can then use the essential oil blends suggested below to make your tailor-made Sleep Kit with essential oils.
| Choose from the following Sleep Kit Preparations with Essential Oils | ||
|---|---|---|
| We recommend choosing one product from each section for an effective Sleep Kit. | ||
| Bath Preparations | Room Preparations | Body Preparations |
| Aromatic Bath Soak | Scented Candle | Essential Oil Body Spray |
| Bath Oil | Essential Oil Diffuser Blend | Body Butter |
| Bath Melts | Essential Oil Room Spray | Dry Body Oil |
| Shower Steamers | Aromatherapy Eye Pillow | Hand Cream |
Three Sleep Kit Essential Oil Blends
These three Sleep Kit essential oil blends are designed to be interchangeable between all the projects listed above. All are suitable for use upon the skin and come with the safety data for topical application.
Choose from the following essential oils blends for your Sleep Kit:
- Restful
- Deep Sleep
- Refreshing Sleep
| Restful Essential Oil Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed for 100ml / 3.38 fl oz of product with a 3% dilution rate = 60 drops | ||
| 10 drops Frankincense Essential Oil (Boswellia serrata) | 30 drops Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula angustifolia) | 20 drops Roman Chamomile Essential Oil (Anthemis nobilis L.) |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. Reduce to 1% dilution for children and 2% for people in a weakened state. |
||
| How to Use: Use the blend as directed in the original product tutorial that you have chosen from above. | ||
| Deep Sleep Essential Oil Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed for 100ml / 3.38 fl oz of product with a 3% dilution rate = 60 drops | ||
| 20 drops Marjoram Essential Oil (Origanum majorana) | 15 drops Vetiver Essential Oil (Vetiveria zizanoides) | 25 drops Frankincense Essential Oil (Boswellia serrata) |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. Reduce to 1% dilution for children and 2% for people in a weakened state. |
||
| How to Use: Use the blend as directed in the original product tutorial that you have chosen from above. | ||
| Refreshing Sleep Essential Oil Blend | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed for 100ml / 3.38 fl oz of product with a 3% dilution rate = 60 drops | ||
| 20 drops Mandarin Essential Oil (Citrus reticulata) | 20 drops Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula angustifolia) | 20 drops Roman Chamomile Essential Oil (Anthemis nobilis L.) |
|
Safety: Do not use it in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. Reduce to 1% dilution for children and 2% for people in a weakened state. |
||
| How to Use: Use the blend as directed in the original product tutorial that you have chosen from above. | ||
Tips For Using Essential Oils For Improved Sleep
Experiment With Different Blends To Find What Works Best For You
We are individuals, and what works for me might not work for you, and this is where we encourage you to try out different essential oil blends and find your sweet spot.
Keeping them simple with no more than three essential oils is recommended.
Also, remember to switch up the products if you don’t feel they are working. If you have a scented candle in the bedroom before you sleep and don’t think it’s helping. Swap it out and try an essential oil diffuser instead.
Using pillow spray and getting fed up with the pillow feeling a bit damp? Again, switch it out for an essential oil diffuser.
Baths are lovely for relaxing both body and mind for bedtime, but if you don’t have a bath, look at products like shower steamers instead.
Don’t be afraid to mix things up and try something new. Design your Sleep Kit with essential oils based on what suits you best and any other sleep aids that you use regularly.
Use The Sleep Kit With Essential Oils Before Bedtime To Create A Relaxing Atmosphere
How many of us have had the best intentions and made glorious aromatherapy products, and they ended up unused on the shelf? I am as guilty as the next person.
When you make this sleep kit with essential oils, you need to USE it and keep using it regularly.
Used over time, essential oils can often have a cumulative effect. It is considered that regularly using the same essential oils will train your brain to the idea of sleep, and because it associates that scent with sleep, it will work more readily and quickly.
Use all aspects of your Sleep Kit to prepare your environment and yourself for sleep, scent your bedroom, dim the lights, and ban light-emitting devices in bed. “What”? I hear you shout!
There is good evidence to support banning phones or tablets in bed. The blue light emitted by your device screen restrains the production of melatonin. This is the hormone that controls your circadian rhythm. The rhythm that controls when you sleep and awaken.
Disruption of this hormone and, consequently, your circadian rhythm makes it even more challenging to fall asleep and wake up the next day.
Ditch the devices and use your Sleep Kit with essential oils to help you to sleep better and for longer.
Avoid Using Too Much Essential Oil, As It Could Be Overwhelming
This may seem strange, but it is well-documented that using too much essential oil can be counterproductive. Lavender essential oil is an excellent example; some people find it deeply soothing and relaxing, while others find it stimulates and enlivens them.
Often, that can happen when too much Lavender essential oil has been used.
The solution? Try it with less essential oil.
Start with just a few drops and see how you fare, you can always add more drops to preparation, but you can’t take them out!
The Final Word
Having seen the benefits of using essential oils to aid you in sleeping better and for longer, I hope I have encouraged you to make your sleep kit with essential oils.
Choose from that array of excellent aromatherapy products, experiment with the three essential oil blends, and find the one that suits you best. You may find that you need different blends to suit your mood or level of anxiety or stress at any given time.
If you don’t like a particular oil in the blends listed, swap it out with one of the other essential oils listed above; always make sure that you re-check the safety data if you do that.
Try all the different products and see which ones resonate with you most and have the best effects. It can be helpful to jot down a few notes to keep track of your duration and quality of sleep to identify any improvements.
Learn how to make a sleep kit with essential oils and see all those tremendous benefits for yourself.
