The Best Essential Oils for Mood and Sleep Support

Have you ever used aromatherapy or experienced a boost in your mood after you’ve encountered a familiar smell that triggered a fond memory? If so, then you know how smell can directly affect how you feel. In fact, it’s smell that often triggers memories and emotions. And it’s smell–more so than the other senses–that can best influence brain activity and help us calm down.

So when it comes to feelings of overwhelm and anxiousness, it makes sense that aromatherapy can help.

Science backs this up, too. In a study conducted at Ruhr University in Germany, Professor Hanns Hatt suggested that, “Essential oils may affect a number of biological factors, including heart rate, stress levels, blood pressure, breathing, and immune function.”

And in a 2014 study conducted by the American College of Healthcare Sciences, “58 hospice patients were given hand massages once a day for one week with an essential oil blend in 1.5 percent dilution with sweet almond oil. The essential oil blend consisted of equal ratios of bergamot, frankincense and lavender. All patients who received the aromatherapy hand massage reported less pain and depression, concluding that aromatherapy massage with this essential oil blend is more effective for pain and depression management than massage alone.” [1]

When it comes to calming your mind and de-stressing, here are 7 essential oils I recommend:

Bergamot:

With both calming and uplifting abilities, Bergamot can dissipate anxious feelings while simultaneously providing cleansing and purifying benefits.

Cedarwood:

With properties that help to soothe the mind and body, the warm, woody scent of Cedarwood promotes a relaxing environment.

Frankincense:

Often called the “king of oils, ” Frankincense promotes feelings of peace and overall wellness when used aromatically.

Lavender:

Lavender is often considered a must-have oil to keep on hand at all times due to its versatile uses, including calming and relaxing properties that promote peaceful sleep and ease feelings of tension.

Roman Chamomile:

While providing a sweet, floral aroma, Roman Chamomile can soothe body systems as it supports calming effects for the skin, mind and body.

Vetiver:

With a unique, exotic aroma, Vetiver is known to provide a calming, grounding effect on emotions, promoting restful sleep.

Ylang Ylang:

Derived from unique star-shaped flowers, Ylang Ylang is often used to support healthy skin and hair, while simultaneously providing a calming effect and promoting a positive outlook.

I suggest diffusing these oils during the day, and applying a couple of drops to your wrist, chest, and back of neck while you’re out and about.

You might be wondering, if essential oils help calm your mood, then can they help for sleep? The answer is ABSOLUTELY!!!

Quality sleep is essential. If you’re not sleeping well or sleeping enough, you simply can’t be your best self. Your energy tanks, your mood is off, you get sick easier, you crave unhealthy food, and you just don’t feel well.

Experts recommend that adults get at least 7–8 hours of sleep every night. Unfortunately, about 33 percent of Americans are not getting the recommended amount of sleep per night, and approximately 1 in every 5 adults in the United States experiences occasional sleeplessness or difficulty sleeping.

Depriving your body of sleep has been linked to many health risks and places a tremendous burden on virtually every organ system in your body. Lack of adequate sleep affects our ability to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight; influences how we feel, learn, and behave; negatively impacts our cardiovascular health and overall wellbeing; and can reduce reaction time and interfere with our ability to drive.

All of the oils recommended above have powerful calming properties and are perfect to diffuse in your bedroom to support restful sleep. You can also consider adding a few drops to an epsom salt bath before bed or applying a couple of drops to the bottom of your feet before bed.

All of these practices will help calm and relax your mind, so you can easily drift off to restful sleep.

Whether you are overwhelmed with grief or sadness, need to be energized and motivated, or need calming and peaceful feelings throughout your day, essential oils can be helpful in supporting your mood and your sleep.

I would love to hear from you! Do you use essential oils for mood and sleep support? Please share your favorite oils and how you use them!

Found this Interesting?

Jen Broyles is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and essential oils educator who helps people regain their health and vitality naturally through nutrition, stress-management, essential oils, and natural solutions.

Jen has a special interest in gut health, detox, mood, and hormone imbalances. You can visit her website for healthy living advice, practical essential oils tips, and delicious recipes at www.jenbroyles.com.

Essential Oils that Balance Sleep, Mood and More with Jodi Cohen

Jodi Cohen is the founder of Vibrant Blue Oils, an essential oils company, and the best selling author of "Healing with Essential Oils". She's a nutritional therapist and essential oils expert. In this episode we talk about the nervous system and how to get into parasympathetic rest mode, getting a good night's sleep, the adrenal glands, and histamine.

Here's what you'll hear:

Min 01:35 Introducing Jodi Cohen
Min 03:25 Jodi's health history
Min 08:40 Essential oil formulas
Min 11:00 How essential oils work
Min 17:45 Jodi's first approach to helping clients: improving sleep
Min 22:55 Mold & clearing the sinuses
Min 23:40 Melotonin and how it detoxifies
Min 25:40 Effects of stress on the body
Min 28:50 The adrenals & HPA
Min 34:10 Detoxifying estrogen
Min 35:45 Using binders
Min 38:40 Mood adjustment with essential oils
Min 45:15 Histamine balance for air cleaning
Min 46:05 Jodi Cohen's essential oils
Min 48:30 Jodi's resources

To learn more about Jodi Cohen, visit her website here and follow her on social media:
Facebook page 
Facebook discussion group 
Pinterest 
Twitter 
Instagram 
YouTube 

Resources:

Buy essential oils 10% off using the code "womenswellness"
Leaky Gut Solutions interview with Kiran Krishnan
Free gift: Download a free chapter of Jodi's book, Healing with Essential Oils

Here's the video version of the interview with Jodi Cohen:

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How to Tackle Hormonal Mood Swings by Abby Quillen

There are certain body processes that are not under our control. Take hormones, for example: For women, essentials such as estrogen and progesterone help to regulate things like reproduction, growth, and metabolism. They’re necessary, and their levels are not something that anyone can regulate.

Hormones may cause women to feel differently based on different levels, but those changes do not have to be something that happens without awareness. In fact, understanding what’s going on in the body and why it’s happening is a good way to feel and be more in control.

Take menopause: Many women are taught to fear it because of how radically the body changes hormone levels. But in fact, many women experience menopause as a positive phase of life. Even so, it’s helpful to understand what negativity may happen and what women can do to understand it. This graphic helps explain those hormone fluctuations.
 

"How to Tackle Hormonal Mood Swings" on Health Perch

The Balancing Act

If you feel like your hormones are holding you hostage, here are some relatively simple lifestyle changes that may help.

1. Pay attention

Keep a diary of your symptoms for a few months. Every woman is different, and the only way to understand your moods is to record them and analyze the data. It may bring relief to observe that cyclical annoyances don’t usually last long.

2. Eat up

Studies suggest that women with PMS may be deficient in calcium and magnesium.

According to some experts, foods rich in vitamin B6, omega 3 fatty acids and zinc may help prevent mood swings. It can’t hurt to eat a more nutrient-dense diet. Reach for vegetables, leafy greens, beans, seeds, nuts, legumes, whole grains, poultry, seafood, seaweed and fish.

3. Improve your sleep habits

Some women report insomnia before menstruation, which is when estrogen and progesterone levels plummet. 40 to 50 percent of women experience insomnia during menopause. Women with sleep disturbances are more likely to feel stressed out, tense, anxious, or depressed. To improve your odds of a good night of sleep, make your room dark, quiet, and cool, and stick to routine sleep and waking times.

4. Move more

In one study, eight weeks of aerobic training significantly reduced participants’ premenstrual symptoms. Choose physical activities you enjoy since the point is to feel good.

5. Manage stress

Women who experience stress early in a menstrual cycle are more likely to experience mood swings later in the cycle, according to a study. Walking, mindfulness exercises, visiting nature, and hanging out with friends are proven ways to reduce stress.

6. Reduce caffeine and alcohol

In studies, caffeine has been shown to decrease feelings of relaxation and increase ratings of anxiousness, tenseness, and nervousness. Alcohol may interfere with estrogen detoxification (which could be why it’s associated with a higher risk of breast cancer). So reach for a drink such as water or herbal tea that will help you feel calm.

If you experience mood swings that interfere with your daily life and these healthy makeovers don’t help, it may be time to check in with your doctor or naturopath. Herbs like chaste tree and red clover, vitamin supplements or medical treatments may help.

Conclusion

Hormonal cycles should not be used to discount or discriminate against women or medicalize normal life changes. However, it doesn’t serve women to pretend their bodies and moods stay constant through the course of their lifetime. Whether the subject is menstruation, menopause, or moods, they should take their health seriously. Recognizing and understanding hormonal fluctuations may help them move through their lives with more awareness and ease.

 

FOUND THIS INTERESTING?

Abby Quillen is an author and marketing strategist who writes about sustainability, gardening, green living, health, business, and other topics. Her work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, YES! Magazine, and in dozens of other publications. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her family.

This article originally appeared on Health Perch