Wondering how lavender and other essential oils can help you sleep better? Read on to get a better understanding of our powerful sense of smell and find out which are our 2 favourite essential oils for better sleep.
The power of smell
Often overlooked, our sense of smell is actually one of our most powerful senses. It is extremely acute and intense. It is also very personal as it is closely linked to our emotions and memories.
In fact, the information we receive from our smell sense goes immediately to the limbic system of our brain which controls our emotions and memory. Whereas the signals from our other senses go first through the thalamus which passes them along to the appropriate area of the cerebral cortex to be processed. This is what makes our smell sense so special and incredibly strong.
This also explains why Aromatherapy has been around for centuries, going back to early societies. Egyptians, Chinese, and Romans used these plant oils for their benefits in healthcare, religious ceremonies, beauty treatments, personal hygiene, and food preparation.
The practice of using concentrated plant extracts to improve our health is not new but we now have scientific and medical studies that confirm the benefits of using aromatherapy, especially to help with sleep, depression, anxiety, and overall quality of life.
Lavender is the most popular natural remedy to promote better sleep. Its soothing floral scent has a sedative effect on our body. It helps lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature. Hence promoting a good night’s sleep. Many studies have shown inhaling lavender improves sleep quality and can help treat mild insomnia.
With its calming scent, lavender also helps with reducing anxiety and restlessness. It improves overall sleep quality and also elevates daytime alertness, providing more energy in the morning which is great to keep your circadian rhythm in sync.
With its sunny and fruity scent, inhaling wild orange essential oil brings positive and happy emotions to the mind and helps to release anxiety. Wild orange has uplifting properties (like all the citrus oils family) but is also a calming and balancing oil. By providing a positive relief of tensions in the mind and body, wild orange is very effective in assisting with insomnia and can improve sleep quality.
