Tag Archives: essential oils stress relief

At your wit’s end? Aromatherapy for relief from stress and insomnia

Are you tensed, overstressed and drained out completely? Do you wake up in the middle of nights never to sleep again? Are you anxious about what will happen next even when you know that it is silly to be anxious? Maybe you are caught in the web most Americans are in – the vicious cycle of stress, insomnia and anxiety which occur mostly in hyperactive and over-worked individuals who do not know what it is to relax. In this post-modern era, we are constantly working to exceed ourselves. We strive, slog and do everything in our capacity (and not in our capacity) to achieve what we deem to be phenomenal at the expense of our health.

Stress and insomnia cure: Traditional medicine recommends oral drugs for the cure of stressful conditions and sleeplessness. Though these drugs work, the problem with them is, they inflict a curse of side effects on patients who take them. The medications actually cause more stress than what was already there. Some medications also take patients into a chain reaction, where they are helpless without a particular drug. This causes acute withdrawal symptoms in drugs.


Aromatherapy is a god-send medicine when it comes to curing illnesses or relieving stressful conditions. An effective pain relief therapy, aromatic essential oils work wonders on your body, without any side effects.

Aromatherapy for stress relief: As you all know, aromatherapy oils are natural essence oils that can relieve you of physical, emotional, chemical and mental stress. It alleviates muscular fatigue, combats physiological pain and fights stress-related insomnia in patients.

1. Physical stress: Physical stress is caused by the over-exertion of the body, physically. Though complete rest would rejuvenate a tired body, essential oils aid in such revival. You can try clary sage, cypress, eucalyptus, thyme, peppermint and rosemary oils for relieving physical stress.

2. Environmental stress caused by loud noise, bright light, drive through heavy traffic, constant annoyances, pollution etc. can be treated with oils like basil, cedarwood, chamomile, geranium and coriander.

3. Chemical stress
can occur when you overeat or subject yourself to a lot of medications. Abuse of drugs or over-use of oral medications can result in chemical stress due to the accumulation of toxins in the body. This can be cleared off by inhaling clary sage, lavender, lemon, rosemary, grapefruit, geranium and lemon.

4. Emotional/mental stress
is caused by depressive thoughts, sufferance of painful emotional problems for a prolonged time and very low self-esteem. Basil, chamomile, bergamot, grapefruit, sandalwood and geranium can be used to get relief from mental stress.

You can use essential oils to even clear unwanted materials or substances in your environment. Cypress, eucalyptus lemon, grapefruit, lavender and rosemary oils can cleanse stale air at your home or office and help you breathe aromatic air. Basil, bergamot, birch, coriander, geranium, grapefruit and neroli can improve concentration and make you more creative.

Essential oils for insomnia: Tisserand, an aromatherapist, studied the effect of several oils in hospital patients and found the following essential oils to be effective in treating insomnia: lavender, marjoram, geranium, mandarin, and cardamom. With sedative properties, these oils induced sleep in insomniacs.