The Gift of Sleep

I remember lying in bed with my sisters close by in our large bedroom that housed two double beds. They were breathing evenly, a sure sign, I'd learned, that they were asleep. Not me. More often than not, I was awake, listening, hoping to fall asleep, praying, counting sheep, singing songs in my head, pretending to be asleep in hopes of fooling sleep into thinking I was already there so I would be there. I would picture myself with short hair. I would picture myself tall. I would picture myself having a Coke with Paul McCartney. I would sing his songs in my head.

It was no use. Night after long, dark night I would lie awake for hours, completely unable to sleep. When I look back on my childhood, I first remember the inability to sleep.

It wasn't until I got pregnant for the first time that I really slept. I was amazed at how easy sleep was during pregnancy. I slept at night without a problem and I even napped during the day. Seven of my nine pregnancies gave me fabulous sleep. But, a girl can't stay pregnant forever, so I would go back to my insomniac ways as soon as the baby was born. My final pregnancy brought severe insomnia for its last two months and I was sorely disappointed that sleep was not my friend any more.

And sleep remained illusive after that.

Between my husband's snoring (solved with essential oils - click here to find out how) and my insomnia, sleep was a near impossibility for me. It's like I simply forgot how to go to sleep. I started to dread going to bed. I started taking a half-dose of a nighttime cold reliever to help take the edge off the insomnia. It did help, but it still took me over two hours to fall asleep at night even with that.

Something had to give.

Enter essential oils. When my favorite friend introduced me to these oils, I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them a shot, so I did. I read that lavender essential oil was great for sleep, so I used lavender my first night with oils.

Whoa! I hit the pillow, said goodnight to my husband, and don't remember a thing until the next morning. I woke up in shock that I had gone right to sleep and had slept all night. This blew me away so much that the next night, I did the same thing and used lavender for a couple weeks and went from using it on the bottom of my feet, to adding it to my temples, wrists, back of neck and to my diffuser.

Then, insomnia returned like an ugly ogre and I thought the oil had failed me. I thought it was good while it lasted, but that there is no long-term cure for long-term insomnia.

Then I read that too much lavender can actually make some people (me) hyper.

So, I cut back on the lavender, using it on my wrists and back of neck only, and started diffusing vetiver instead of lavender.

This is the balance that works for me. My lavender roller bottle consists of 10 drops of lavender in a 10ml bottle, topped off with fractionated coconut oil. My vetiver use is simple: 2 drops of vetiver in my diffuser along with the other blends I use at night (2 drops breathe blend, 2 drops onguard blend and 2 drops frankincense).

I no longer dread going to bed because I now have the expectation of sleep. Every once in a while, I'll be unable to sleep for a little while, but since my husband no longer snores, I simply lie there and use the time to pray till I fall asleep, which is never as long as it used to be, even with a lot on my mind.

My insomnia is not an issue in my life any more. Sleep really is a wonderful thing. I have a deep appreciation for sleep since I went so many years without it.

Click here to get your hands on some of these fabulous oils.
Happy Oiling!
~Tricia