How Lavender Oil can help you sleep?
Source:
|
Author:pro3d5a8785
|
Published time: 2015-08-19
|
4935 Views
|
Share:
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is a pretty garden favorite with slim, sage green leaves and spiky purple flowers.
During the Middle Ages, the herb was used as an aphrodisiac. John Parkinson, a 17th-century London apothecary, wrote that lavender is "especially good for all griefs and pains of the head and brain."
Research shows that the scent of lavender eases anxiety and insomnia. In one study done at Britain's University of Southampton, researchers tracked the sleep patterns of 10 adults. For a week, half of the participants slept in a room where lavender essential oilwas diffused in the air throughout the night; the rest snoozed in a similar room where a placebo--sweet almond oil--was released. After a week, the groups switched rooms. At the end of the study, the volunteers ranked the quality of their sleep 20% better on average when in the lavender-scented room.
Psychologists at Wesleyan University asked 31 men and women to sniff lavender essential oil one night--and then distilled water the next--for four 2-minute periods just before bedtime. The researchers monitored their sleep cycles with brain scans. On the night they whiffed the herb, subjects slept more soundly; they also felt more energetic the next morning.
The researchers found that lavender increased slow-wave sleep, the very deep slumber in which the heartbeat slows and muscles relax. During this phase, the brain is thought to organize memory, as well.
Pure lavender essential oil. Sprinkle a few drops on a piece of tissue and tuck it under your pillow, or use an aromatherapy diffuser.