Today’s guest blog is from Reine Matthews. She is a Life Coach, Holistic Nutrition Specialist, Spiritual Guidance Coach, and Angel Intuitive. You can follow her on Facebook and check out her YouTube channel.

Sleep is super important to the functioning of the body.

It ensures that your body is able to recover from the previous day and makes it possible for you to be at your best the next morning. It regulates the hormones and immune system, therefore making you feel good and stay healthy. Any time your sleep gets disrupted or doesn’t happen at all, in the case of insomnia, your body pays the price in feeling moody, having your cognition a little off, and makes you more susceptible to catching colds and other illness. Plus if you already have a health issue, not sleeping will actually exacerbate whatever it is that’s already ailing you.

When I first started getting symptoms of Lyme Disease I had insomnia so bad, I was miserable. Not only was I not sleeping, which is bad enough on its own, but my body was not getting proper rest or the ability to recover, therefore making all my other symptoms worse, causing even more problems for me inside and out.

So I found some great natural ways to combat the insomnia and get a good night’s sleep.

I still use these techniques as needed now, but when I first started trying them, I had to do them every single night to ensure that sleep would actually come and I would be able to function better the next day.

Whether you have insomnia and are looking for natural remedies, or you just have the occasional sleepless night and want to know what would work in that moment any or all of these ways can work for you if you give them a try.

ONE: Lavender

There are so many ways to use lavender to help you sleep it is truly amazing. You could use all these ways in one night if you wanted or felt the need to, you could also just try one or two at a time and see how it goes for you. If you, or someone you know, has a lavender plant pick some and put them in a vase next to your bed. You can also dry the flowers and put them in a sachet bag and put it in your pillow case. Smelling the wonderful flower itself will help calm you and aid with sleep.

Otherwise lavender essential oil is ideal. With the oil you can put some in a diffuser in your room, you can take a bath before bed and put some of the essential oil in the bath, and you can put a few drops of the essential oil directly on the bottoms of your feet. The feet are the most absorbent body part and will help get those relaxing sleep aid qualities of the oil quickly into your body. Putting the oil on the feet is my favorite use of lavender essential oil for it works the best in my opinion.

Pretty much anyway that you can ensure the scent of the lavender is in your room, the closer to you or your bed the better, you will get the calming and relaxing benefits from that lavender has to offer.

TWO: An Herbal Tea Blend

Some of the best herbs to use for insomnia or as a sleep aid are: lemon balm, valerian, and catnip. Lemon balm is in the mint family, has a wonderful lemony scent, and is known to have sedative and tranquilizing properties.

Valerian is a well-known sedative.

Catnip is not just for cats, it may make your cat go a little wild, but for humans it is great for calming and soothing the mind. There have been studies that show the use of these herbs alone or in combination make for significantly better sleep without any side effects.

If you grow your own herbs I would highly recommend planting these and keeping them on hand. You can dry them and store them in glass bottles for fall and winter time. You can use whatever combination you want, I prefer using a little more lemon balm for the taste.

• One tablespoon of each for a small pot of tea, or two tablespoons of the lemon balm for better flavor.
• Steep in hot water for about ten minutes.
• Drink one cup before bed.
• You can store the rest in the fridge and reheat each night until used up and then do another batch of tea.
• You can also find sleep blend teas in your supermarket or at a local health food store. Look for these particular herbs in those blends for the best effect.

THREE: Guided Meditation Before Bed

This is one that I often use when nothing else seems to work. You might find, like myself, that some things work at different times. This may work for you once, then the next night something else might work better. It’s kind of a trial and error practice to find what works for you and when.

I like to go on YouTube and find guided meditations for relaxation and sleep and listen to them before bed. Or sleep music and meditate with that music without the guided part. Whichever you choose is up to you. The fact that you are taking the time to meditate, calm the mind, and be still before bed is really what will help you be able to fall asleep.

I hope you liked my suggestions here and give some of them a try. You might be surprised at how well some of them work. But if one doesn’t don’t be discouraged, one of the others might work better. Be open to trying out multiple things until you find what is right for you. It took me a while to finally be able to fall asleep easily and stay asleep through the night, and these are the tools that helped me to get there.

 

Happy sleeping. Blessings beautiful ones.

 

You can purchase lavender essential oil here.

What is your favorite way to welcome sweet dreams?