Lavender Sleep Stones

Spring cleaning had begun, and my 3 year old had stopped sleeping. Whether or not these two things were related, I don't know, but I was exhausted, and she wasn't sleeping. Something had to be done.

Every night she was climbing into our bed, two, three, even four times in a night, where we would leave her until she started kicking in her sleep or pushing one of us out of bed. With the lack of sleep, everyone was on edge.

When the lavender essential oils arrived from France, I found the needed stone to make my first sleep stone. For, as every parent knows, the expression "to sleep like a baby", doesn't always mean that babies or toddlers sleep soundly through the night.

Parents also know that if children sleep well, parents are more likely to be able to sleep.

I made two sleep stones to start - one for my little one's room, and one for my own, and the sound sleep we all had that night was a dream come true.

It is now three nights that she has stayed in bed, and everyone in the house is happier and less on edge.

Conclusion? The sleep stones are a success, and we will have them on our website very soon!

Lavender Dreams

As mosquitoes haven’t been out much with the snow hitting Calgary this week, I have not been testing the spritzers so much for mosquito repellent this week. Instead, I tried them as pillow sprays to help us sleep, and as body sprays as a light perfume.

I decided to try making a mix of lavender and vanilla for the spritzers, which smelled absolutely delicious. We sprayed my daughter’s pillow with it before her nap, and she fell asleep rather quickly. Pleased with this apparent success, we sprayed all of the pillows before bedtime. Big mistake. It started with our daughter. By 11:00, she had been up about 5 times, and at 2:00 am, my husband brought her back to our bed. But she wasn’t the only one having problems sleeping. My husband and I were also up tossing and turning all night. The next day, I read somewhere that lavender essential oils, when blended with other essential oils, enhance any effects of the oils they’re blended with. My conclusion? Vanilla does not help you sleep, and the lavender enhanced that.

Anxious to sleep well the following night, I used the pure lavender Spritzer. The result was heavenly. I did not hear a peep out of my little angel all night long, and she slept in an hour later than usual. Since she’s been potty trained, she hasn’t slept much later than 6:00am. With the lavender scent on her pillow, she slept until 7:00. Thinking it may have been a fluke, I used it again the next night (last night), and the same thing. It’s 6:30 as I write this, and I still haven’t heard a sound from her room. As far as I’m concerned, they are a success for helping with sleep. (I had some on my pillow last night, and I slept much better as well.)

Now if only I can find a way to make it stop snowing, so I can use it as a mosquito repellent!

Lavender Dreams

Lavender has long been used as a sleep aid. Some people claim it works as well as sleeping pills, but without any of the side effects. This week I decided to test this claim on the most restless sleeper in our house - my husband.

My husband, as I may have mentioned before, is something of a skeptic. He's also quite stubborn, and when he makes up his mind about something, there is no changing it. So, I didn't see the need to inform him of my latest experiment I would be testing on him.

I merely took one of my French Organic Lavender Pillow and Drawer Liners and slipped it into his pillowcase while he was at work, landscaping.

"You know," he said, as we climbed into bed for the night, "the whole house is starting to smell like lavender."

I just smiled. "I know," I said. "Isn't it wonderful?"

The next morning, I awoke from a wonderful lavender induced sleep. I felt wonderful. I turned to my husband. "How did you sleep last night?" I asked.

He looked at me slightly confused. "It's weird," he said, "I had one of the best sleeps ever last night." For him, this is rather significant, as he doesn't usually sleep well. He tosses and turns a lot, and wakes up several times a night.

I reached into his pillow, and pulled out the pillow liner. "Think this might have had something to do with it?"

He shrugged. "All I know is I slept really well, and whatever it was, I'd use it again." So the lavender liner has a new home under my husband's pillow. I don't complain, since it helps me sleep as well.

After a couple of night, my husband mentioned that his dreams were especially vivid with the lavender, and I noticed this as well, although I often have vivid dreams, so I cannot necessarily connect that to the lavender.

A friend of mine who has the large satin lavender eye pillow says that she uses that to help her fall back to sleep after nursing at night time, and she finds that helps her to go back to sleep more easily.

It looks like this is another successful experiment! Lavender can help with a good night of sleep, and lavender triumphs over the skeptic again!

Join us next week as we compare flax heating pads to barley heating pads, comparing which is the most comfortable and which one retains heat the best.