If you've been looking for ways to improve your sleep quality and lifestyle, chances are you've come across a few suggestions to try essential oils. And if you've never used them before, essential oils can seem like a serious mystery. After all, every oil is different and you may even be worried that it's some kind of scam if you know someone hawking essential oils from the trunk of their car.

As sleep experts, let us assure you that essential oils are completely legit, and for more purposes than just sleep and relaxation. If you're looking for an understanding of how essential oils can improve your sleep quality and lifestyle in general, we've got you covered. We're about to dive into three amazing uses for Essential oils that will, all three, help you get better sleep either directly or indirectly.

What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are the extracts of fragrant plants with their own natural properties. Unlike 'artificial fragrances', essential oils are more than just oils that smell good. They also maintain the health and wellness benefits of their plants of origin. Each essential oil has the potential to increase blood flow, ease headaches, promote sleep, or many other possibilities depending on the properties of the original plant. This is exactly why they are the perfect way to improve your life with more than just wonderful fragrances.

By using essential oils in every aspect of your life, you can gain the health and wellness of living in harmony with nature. And, of course, your home will smell amazing as a result. Join us as we dive into five beneficial uses of essential oil in your home to improve your quality and enjoyment of life.

Adding Essential Oils to Your Bath

There is nothing so luxurious and sleep relaxing as an aromatherapy bath. You can soak in amazing scents that let your mind wander through your thoughts as if they were ancient fragrant gardens. If you enjoy baths, then you love the feeling of lowering yourself into a steaming hot tub. Feeling the hot water unknotting your muscles and helping you to fully relax.

Essential oils can enhance this experience when added to the bath by providing both their fragrance and their natural healing qualities. Used before bed, the right essential oil in the bath can help send you off to dreamland.

Aromatherapy

To aerate the essential oils using your bathtub as the diffuser, simply sprinkle a few drops of oil onto the hot water surface. The oil will quickly evaporate, filling the room with a relaxing aroma. The steam that clouds your head in the bath will be full of sinus-clearing, wonderfully scented oils as you enjoy your soak.

Best Oils for Bath Aromatherapy:

• Lemon / Lemongrass
• Eucalyptus
• Tea Tree
• Clary Sage
• Lavender

Soaking in Essential Oils

However, if you want to soak your skin in an essential oil bath, absorbing the natural properties, then you'll need a different approach. For a relaxing soak, mix a few drops of oil into olive oil or whole milk, then blend it into your warm bath. Or, if you're looking to soothe aching muscles, use two cups of Epsom salt instead of milk. This is an incredible way to prepare for bed or relax in the middle of a stressful day.

Best Essential Oils for Bath Soaking

• Tea Tree
• Ylang Ylang
• Chamomile
• Lavender
• Thyme
• Sage

Fall Asleep With the Perfect Nighttime Scent

Another powerful use of essential oil is to help yourself get to sleep and stay asleep. The nose has a surprising amount of influence over how you feel. Scents are the strongest connection to our memories, and scents can also let us know when it's time for certain activities. Just as the smell of coffee and breakfast can wake up, the right essential oil can help your body know when it's time to sleep. A change in scent indicates a change in the environment. This is why essential oils can help you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning.

Best Essential Oils for Bedtime

• Chamomile
• Lavender
• Clary Sage
• Valerian
• Bergamot 

Sleepy On Command

Your brain associates certain stimuli with "Bedtime." The taste of your before-bed cocoa, the sound of the late-night show you always switch off before sleeping, the chime of your clock at bedtime. Whatever the triggers are in your home, hearing or seeing them can cause your brain to make you sleepy at the right time. Scent works that way too. 

If you diffuse the same soothing essential oil at bedtime every night, your mind will begin to associate it with bedtime. So that when you next smell that scent in the evening, you will start to get sleepy and ready to go to bed.

The Smell of Dreamland

Maintaining that scent throughout the night with a timed diffuser is also a great way to get a deep night's sleep. A change in scent, like the smell of a housemate making early-morning breakfast, can cause your nose to wake you up. But a diffuser by your bed is a lot like having a white noise machine in your bedroom. It creates a steady pleasant smell that assures your nose everything is fine so you can keep sleeping until the alarm.

In fact, you might even use a second programmed diffuser to spray a wakeful scent like lemon or peppermint to help you wake up.

For Children Who Can't Sleep

If your children have trouble sleeping, try using the bedtime diffuser trick to soothe their worried little minds. Essential oils can help older children get sleepy at the right time and can help even very young children learn to sleep through the night. 

Aromatic Prevention of Mold & Mildew

Did you know that some essential oils have natural anti-fungal properties? This means that mold and mildew hate to grow where the essential oil droplets have landed. If your sleep has been disturbed by allergy symptoms or worries about mold that keep you up at night, essential oils can be a safe chemical-free answer to a mold-free home.

Diffusing the right essential oils or spraying essential oil sprays at the right time can significantly reduce the chances of unwanted growth in your home or in your laundry. Plus, it's an awesome smelling and totally non-toxic way to fight fuzzy unwanted plant life.

Essential Oils with Antifungal Properties

You might be surprised which essential oils have antifungal properties. In fact, there's a good chance that you already have a few in your home and are already reaping the benefit of diffusing them without even realizing it. Antifungal essential oils are simply those that discourage mold spores from growing where they land. Used topically, it can even treat fungal conditions like dandruff and athlete's foot.

Antifungal Essential Oils

• Lemongrass
• Lavender
• Tea Tree
• Cloves
• Cinnamon Bark
• Thyme
• Geranium
• Oregano

A Real Fresh Clean Scent

You'll notice that lemongrass is at the top of the list. There's a reason we associate scents like lemon and tea tree as meaning "fresh and clean" almost by instinct. And it's not just the lemony PineSol we grew up cleaning with. It's because these certain tangy natural plants have been helping us fight back mold and mildew for thousands of years.

To use these essential oils to prevent mold and mildew, spray it around your home. Us it as a directly sprayed mist on areas that concern you and diffuse your home on a regular basis. You can also spray an antifungal essential oil mist into your laundry to improve the scent and keep it from souring (with mildew) if it happens to be left damp in the washer for a few hours.

There are so many ways to use essential oils to improve your life, and many of them are wonderful for helping you relax for sleep, fall asleep, and stay firmly in dreamland all night long. For more amazing insights into improving your sleep, check out more Sleep Doctor blog articles or contact us today!