Category — health

I can feel the Winter season slowly creeping up in the background of this beautiful Fall. In about a month, this crispy colorful leaves will be dry and cracklin’, the wind will whip through the bare branches, the jack o lantern will be dilapidated. Okay, okay, am I giving you early onset seasonal depression?

And with that seasonal depression might come some life stress, and the next thing you know you’ve binged on sugar, fallen asleep, and WHAM! You’re up with a full blown sinus cold (or worse!)

Either you’ve been there, you ARE there, or you WILL be there.

So here we go, a little mama herbal wisdom:

Prevention is the best medicine. Balance, balance, balance. But sometimes, despite you’re best efforts, you get kinda “high”. You’re in the zone, fillin’ up that calendar, working hard and before you know it, you see all those red flags going up. For me it’s a chatterbox brain (and mouth), a listlessness and off kilter energy. I wake up with a little sore throat, I yawn all day, I feel my exhaustion catching up with me and the only thing that sounds good is SLEEP.

Sleep is SO important. The body does most of its cellular rebuilding during sleep, while dreams blow off mental steam and unresolved tensions of the day. I find it SO hard to get to bed at a decent hour. The wee hours of the morning are when my brain is most productive for work, yet I don’t have the luxury of sleeping all day because, alas, I have 2 young kids! If you are like me, your sleep “issues” vary; maybe sometimes its GETTING to sleep, maybe its STAYING asleep, maybe its the QUALITY and DEPTH of your sleep (like nursing all night?!)

Herbs can play a significant role in supporting the body’s need for sleep. The “sleep aid” herbs work gently, not like a tranquilizer, and have been used since FOREVER. They don’t have side effects, are not addictive, and work differently for different people. It’s important to really look at your symptoms and pick the right herb to support your needs. And let’s not forget- fresher is ALWAYS better. Fresh, organically grown whole herbs (leaves, flowers, roots — as opposed to capsules) are powerful when used as either nourishment or medicine. All of the herbs in my list below can be found at Mountain Rose Herbs where you can purchase the fresh, organic herbs in bulk (4 oz, 8oz, even 1 lb). Second to growing/harvesting them yourself, you will benefit much more from theirs than stagnant bagged teas or conventionally grown herbs from many grocers (a little pesticide spray with your chamomile tea before bed? Mmmm….) (You can read more about their guiding principles here.)

That said, here is a quick overview of some herbs for sleep (and/or stress!):

SKULLCAP: Skullcap really became my best friend at the end of my pregnancy. Sleep was hard to come by, and with the heart burn and discomfort I had I really needed something to KNOCK me out. Skullcap is said to be the closest thing to a mild sedative. It doesn’t work that way for everyone, but its definitely worth a try. (Bonus: It is also anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic.) Take as a tincture or even a medicinal tea (15 minutes steep) 30 minutes before you plan to go to bed. Awake from a deep sleep refreshed, not groggy.

CHAMOMILE: Another popular sleepy time tea, and often used for children to promote a calm, restful spirit. Either drink as a beverage tea (3-5 minutes steep time) or add to a warm bath! (Be careful if you have a yellow flower pollen allergy – chamomile tea could make you irritated if you do, the opposite of restful! If you have an allergy to ragweed, chamomile may even cause an anaphylactic shock.)

LAVENDER: I ADORE lavender as a relaxing herb. I have had great success using lavendar as an essential oil from Young Living, (it is useful for many things, relaxation is only one of them!) A drop under my pillow and rubbed into the soles of my feet before bed helps signal my body to relax and often helps me attain a deeper sleep than usual. BUT- it can sometimes be more of a stimulate for some people, so the important thing to remember here is that lavender works to support and strengthen the nervous system, so it could work differently for you depending on your body’s needs. It works for me because the nervous system strengthening helps alleviate any worry or depression I have when going to bed. Once that is liften, sleep is easier to come by, and keep.

Here are some perhaps lesser known herbs that could be your ticket to better sleep:

LEMON BALM: Like lavender, lemon balm strengthens nervous system to help nerves relax. Another thing lemon balm is GREAT for is a decongestant, not only for the body but for the mind as well. Lemon balm grows like weeds around here, so if you find this herb useful you should plant some in the corner of your yard and harvest yourself!

VALERIAN ROOT: Valerian root can really help relieve anxiety. If also repopulates easily, so buying one plant and harvesting yourself is a good idea. Note: it is not the most tasty herb as a tincture or tea, but one tip I learned in my herbs class is to make Mead with it (honey wine). I am very excited to give this a try in the coming months, (I think I’ll start by making a kombucha with it, however).

PASSIONVINE (flower): Useful for mental stimulation and nervous energy, use as tea or tincture.

CALIFORNIA POPPY: Useful and SAFE FOR CHILDREN TOO, a relaxant and pain reliever. It can also be found wild in Oregon. If you find some, you can make tea from the flowers, or use the whole plant in your tincture form.

HOPS: Many folks claim that fresh hops can help them with sleep problems. It is often used in sleep pillows (and it’s easy to make these yourself!). Another tip from herb class: hops can have opposite effect on those who are clinically depressed, so if that is you, hops might not be your friend.

CATNIP: I love catnip, it’s one of my favorite herbs. I tried it for the first time to break fever, and within minutes I was deeply asleep. When I awoke, I looked up more info about it and found out some great stuff: Catnip is wonderful for hyper kids and colic babies, AND it’s an anti-spasmadic (which helps my IBS problems). I drink before bed to pass through breastmilk for Verity to sleep well. Another thing to note is that catnip herb can be great for really bad, spasmodic coughs, but we’ll get more into that in Part 2, when we talk about what to do once you ARE sick. (Tincture fresh leaves).

OATSTRAW: This nerve strengthening herb is a great all over tonic (and its known as an aphrodisiac too! (there certainly are LOTS of nerves, ya know, DOWN THERE )

St. JOHNS WORT: Anti-depressant, moves things through the liver quickly (so does not work in conjuction with prescription drugs) and treats sore overworked muscles.

LINDEN FLOWERS: Relaxant and headache reliever.

Lastly, there are many herbs in their therapeutic grade essential oil form that can aid in your sleep, balance, and prevention of winter time (or any time!) blues and colds. For one, a blend called RutaVaLa includes: Ruta graveolens (rue), lavender, and valerian essential oils.

Coming up next… Herbs for Rest and Inner Defense – Part 2. I’ll tell you about what to do when it’s seems too late. Your are or are getting sick and you need SUPPORT, asap. Before you head out for over the counter medicine or antibiotics that will only mask your symptoms and leave your body weak and more vulnerable to the next attack, remember that nature has supplied us with some amazing herbs to aid your body’s immune (and other) systems to fight off the bad germs itself – leaving you healthy and resilient instead! So stay tuned…