When it comes to sleep, all too many of us have trouble doing so. Insomnia and other issues keep all too many of us up at nighttime, preventing us from getting the rest that our bodies need to be healthy and ready for another day.
With that being said, this doesn’t mean that you automatically need to turn to expensive or dangerous prescription medications.
Instead, there are many natural alternatives out there that can help calm you down, make you feel sedated, and result in you getting a good night’s sleep. Two of these naturally occurring substances are lavender and chamomile. Today, we want to take a closer look at lavender and chamomile individually to determine exactly how they help you sleep.
We’ll then take a look at how they can work together to provide you with even better sleep benefits, and we’ll end things by explaining exactly how to use both of these naturally occurring substances to finally put you to sleep.
How Does Lavender Help You Sleep?
First, we have lavender, which is a herb or flower that is known for having many therapeutic properties and a very soothing aroma. For this reason, it’s often used in a variety of natural remedies and aromatherapies to help improve overall sleep quality and to allow for better relaxation.
One of the reasons why lavender can help you sleep is because it has calming effects. It contains various compounds, terpenes such as linalool and linalyl acetate which have extremely sedating and calming effects. They work together with the neurotransmitters present in your body, such as GABA or aminobutyric acid, which helps to lower stress and anxiety levels.
On that note, there is also some evidence to indicate that using lavender as aromatherapy can also help reduce stress and anxiety levels by possibly lowering cortisol levels. For those who don’t know, cortisol is a stress hormone that occurs when you feel stressed out, and funny enough, makes you feel even more stressed out.
Due to these calming effects, it is thought that lavender is a fantastic sleep aid. It could be the case that inhaling the scent of lavender, or even ingesting it in a brew, could help calm you down to the point where you’ll fall asleep faster, have a deeper sleep, and sleep for longer. Lavender may also promote relaxation and better sleep by slowing down your heart rate and stress response.
In fact, there are studies out there that prove that lavender helps to increase slow wave sleep, which means that you end up sleeping deeper and longer, with the result being that you wake up feeling more refreshed. Overall, these effects result in you sleeping much better.
How Does Chamomile Help You Sleep?
Chamomile is another naturally occurring herb, one that’s often been used for medicinal properties, with many people making teas out of it, specifically to help with sleep and with stomach upset.
This is because chamomile is known for having relaxing and calming effects, mainly due to a variety of compounds it contains, including apigenin chamazulene, and bisabolol. Just like with lavender, these compounds also interact with the GABA receptors in your brain, therefore reducing anxiety and promoting relaxation.
There are also some studies out there which show that chamomile can help reduce cortisol levels, therefore allowing for a more relaxed mental state. It is also known that chamomile features some mild muscle relaxing properties that can help reduce muscle pain and just reduce tension in general. This in turn should also help you fall asleep much faster.
It still doesn’t end there because chamomile also has other benefits, mainly for your digestive system. Digestive discomfort often disrupts sleep, so if your belly feels better, you should be able to sleep better as well.
Remember that inflammation can also affect your sleep quality, and you guessed it, chamomile is also great for reducing inflammation. It even has antioxidant properties that can help promote A healthier immune system.
Lavender and Chamomile Working in Synergy for Maximum Sleep Benefits
It would serve to reason that if lavender and chamomile separately have such great relaxing, sedating, and sleep-inducing properties, that if you took them together, their benefits would be amplified.
Simply put, two heads are better than one, and as far as sleep aids are concerned, two also appear to be better than one alone.
Both lavender and chamomile appear to have effects that result in reduced anxiety and stress, increased muscle relaxation, and an overall better mind state, all of which come together to help you relax more and sleep better at night. Now, the question is how you take these two together to provide you with a great sleep.
How to Take Lavender and Chamomile for the Best Sleep
Many people wonder how exactly to take chamomile and lavender together to achieve a better night’s sleep. Well, the number one best way to do so is by making tea, so let’s figure out how to do that right now.
Making Lavender and Chamomile Tea
Okay, so if you manage to find yourself some pre-made packs of chamomile tea and lavender tea, then you’re on the right track because this will make life a lot easier. All you have to do is brew a cup of water and place one of each tea bag into your cup, and there you go, you’ve got some instant chamomile and lavender tea.
However, if you don’t have access to pre-made tea bags, you might need to make them yourself. If this is the case, you want to go out and collect some fresh lavender and chamomile. Generally speaking, people would dry their herbs before making tea with them, although it’s not 100% necessary.
Whether you are using dried herbs or not, take about one tablespoon of lavender and one tablespoon of chamomile, place it in a cup, and then steep it with hot water for up to 10 minutes. All of the beneficial compounds should seep into the water, therefore making a delicious brew. If you don’t like the flavor, you can always add a bit of honey.
Make Your Own DIY Lavender and Chamomile Oil
If you’d rather not drink tea and instead make something that you can then use in an essential oil diffuser or an aromatherapy tool, then you can make your own lavender and chamomile oil. To do this, you want to get yourself some coconut oil to fill a decent-sized Mason jar.
You’re then going to take up to four or five tablespoons of dried chamomile and dried lavender and place it inside the oil.
You now want to let this sit for up to two or three weeks while all of the beneficial ingredients from both the chamomile and the lavender infuse into the oil. You can then use this oil to put in an essential oil diffuser, you can rub it onto your skin, or you could even cook with it, if you like the taste.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, both lavender and chamomile can be extremely beneficial, not only for your sleep, but for your overall health as well. Whether you choose to brew them into a tea or infuse them into an oil is up to you, but either way, it’s something that we certainly recommend trying.
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