Essential Oils: Sleep Blend
Hi there!
Today I want to share with you my own personal sleep blend.
I have always had a hard time falling asleep. I can’t put my finger on why, but it’s always been that way. I start thinking about things that happened that day that I wish had gone differently, or I’ll scroll through my mental to do list for the coming day, all the while staring at the clock thinking I really need to go to sleep. Or worse, calculating just how much sleep I would get if I went to sleep riiiiight NOW. Ugh.
So to my oils I went. First, I consulted my oils book* to see which oils were recommended most for sleep aids. Of course, lavender is well-known for it’s relaxing properties, and I wanted to make use of that, but if truth be told, I’m not a big fan of lavender. GASP! I know, I know…don’t hate me. Also, lavender tends to be a pretty potent oil, so for me, a little goes a long way. But according to my book, cedarwood and marjoram were also pretty high on the list.
For a while, I left it at that. This was when I was first getting started with oils and I didn’t have a whole lot of different oils on hand yet. I just did equal parts of those three oils and it worked pretty well.
Then I started acquiring other oils. I wanted to decrease how much lavender I was using for the reasons stated above, so I went through the scents of oils that I’ve been drawn to, the ones that tend to relax me, which are usually earthy in nature. When I finally got my hands on some vetiver, wow. I loved it. Vetiver is a super dense oil, kind of syrup-like if you ask me, but it has this earthy dirt kind of smell that really spoke to me, particularly when combined with some of my tree oils.
I’ve played around a bit with this recipe over the years, sometimes subbing other tree oils in or what have you, but I always come back to this basic formula: lavender, marjoram, cedarwood, Balance (doTERRA’s grounding blend), and vetiver. I’ve started adding a bit of copaiba as well, because it too is earthy but it also acts as a booster to the properties of the other oils, so win-win.
15 ml Bottle Blend
I like to save some of my empty oil bottles so I can mix and store my own blends. I use this blend a lot, so it’s worth it to me to mix up an entire 15ml bottle to have on hand. It’s much easier then to just put a few drops into a diffuser as desired. Saves time having to get all of the individual oils out at the end of the day when all you want to do is crawl into bed. It also makes it easier to create a roller bottle if you want to apply the blend topically, but I’ll get more into that below.
For this blend, I always use an empty bottle that had previously held one of the individual oils used in the blend. In my case, it is usually copaiba, just because I use it a lot. So I grab my empty copaiba bottle, pull out the plastic dropper thing, then grab the individual oils and begin to fill the bottle as follows: 12 drops vetiver + 60 drops lavender + 48 drops marjoram + 72 drops cedarwood + 48 drops Balance + 30 drops copaiba. Put the plastic dropper back into the spout of the bottle, and screw the cap back on. To mix, gently roll the bottle in your hands to combine. See graphic below.
Voila! Now you are ready with a bottle of this sleep blend. When needed, just add the desired number of drops to a diffuser and reap the benefits of a good night’s sleep!
Sleep 10 ml Roller Blend
Let’s say you’re traveling and prefer something a bit more compact to take with you, or any of the many other reasons you might want a roller blend to apply topically. Enter: roller bottles! I get mine on Amazon from Root + Petal. I personally like the colored lids because then I know which blend is which by the color. But they have all sorts of different bottles too, so peruse away!
If you made up a bottle of this sleep blend, then your life is pretty easy. To make a roller bottle, just do 30-40 drops of the blend in your roller bottle, then fill to the top with carrier oil. I use fractionated coconut oil (FCO) for my sleep blend.
Tip: A carrier oil helps make it so that the essential oils don’t evaporate before they’ve been absorbed into your skin, which means that any aromatic properties from applying topically are prolonged as well.
If you prefer to try only a small amount before going all-in for the 15 ml bottle formula, I don’t blame you! Here is the breakdown on how to make a roller blend with individual oils.
In your empty 10 ml roller bottle, add 2 drops vetiver + 10 drops lavender + 8 drops marjoram + 12 drops cedarwood + 8 drops Balance + 5 drops copaiba, then fill to the top with fractionated coconut oil. See graphic below.
When you’re ready to head to bed, apply to the back of your neck, temples, and / or feet, and because I sleep with my hands near my head, I always apply to my wrists too. I’m wild like that ;).
I hope you found this post helpful. Let me know if you try my blend and tell me what you think!
Be sure to check out my Pinterest page, particularly my Essentially Oiled Machine board for more oil recipes and ideas! If you have a question about how I use my oils, feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to answer any questions I can!
Have a great night’s sleep!
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