If you tend to toss and turn in your bed and have trouble going to sleep, cedarwood oil might be able to help. This essential oil is one that many people use to help them relax and prepare for bed each night. It’s a sleep aid that’s considered natural and safe, and if falling asleep quickly and getting restful sleep is something you’ve struggled with, you might want to consider it.
So many essential oils offer great benefits, help people to live better, relax their nerves, breathe easier, keep pests away, and reduce skin irritation, among other benefits. It seems like there’s an essential oil for everything, and there’s even one that helps you go to sleep. How to use cedarwood oil for sleep?
Why Use Cedarwood Oil for Sleep
I want to talk about what makes cedarwood oil a particularly good essential oil to use if you’re trying to relax and go to sleep. It’s considered a natural sedative. It sedates and relaxes not just the body but the mind as well, which can help to calm you and keep you from being anxious and worried.
A lot of people say that using cedarwood helps them to have good dreams and not be so anxious when they try to sleep.
The scent of it can be very soothing. It’s good for your respiratory system too, helping to clear up congestion and even fight infection in your sinuses.
I would suggest cedarwood oil as a substitute for something that might be irritating to you and stronger. Some people use eucalyptus oil or peppermint oil to help them go to sleep, but these can be skin irritants for some people or can be too strong, and once they are diluted, they might not be very effective. Cedarwood is not as strong and is less likely to irritate, making it an excellent substitute.
Why else might you want to use cedarwood oil to help you go to sleep. One of the benefits of this oil and what makes it kind of stand out from some of the others is that it is considered safe for kids.
My research showed that it’s safe for children as young as two years old due to how gentle and mild it is. If you are concerned about it still being too strong, you can simply dilute it even further.
How to Use Cedarwood Essential Oil for Sleep
Each essential oil unique and needs to be used in a particular way to be safe and effective. Some of them should be put in a diffuser and spread throughout the room by the diffusing device. Others should be placed onto a surface to be effective, and others still will need to be applied directly to your skin in order to do that work.
You have to be careful, though, as some oils can be very irritating, especially in their undiluted, most potent form. If you read the usage directions for certain essential oils, they will recommend that you dilute them in some water before using them. So, what about cedarwood oil? How do you use it and make sure it’s effective to help you go to sleep?
The US Environmental Protective Agency has recognized cedarwood oil as being generally safe. It’s considered safe when you use it as a food additive or insecticide or topically on your skin. Is very rare for someone to experience skin irritation when they use cedarwood oil, but if you are allergic to cedar, you should not use it. It is derived from the cedar tree, which makes it natural, but it will be a serious irritant to anyone who has a cedar allergy.
Make sure you dilute the oil before you apply it to your skin. You can use a carrier oil or water, and you should test it in a small part of your skin that won’t be visible to most people before you put it somewhere that everyone can see.
So, you can try a patch test on your stomach or high up on your leg where clothing would usually cover your skin. Check and see if there’s any severe redness or irritation before you determine that it’s safe for you. Once again, cedarwood oil is usually very safe and gentle and almost never causes skin irritation. However, it’s always a good idea to check an essential oil and how your skin reacts to it before you use it very much.
You also don’t want to ingest it. This is not something you should be eating.
Once diluted, you can apply the cedarwood oil to your neck, behind the ears, or to your upper chest. This places the scent close to your nose where you can breathe it in. This allows you to benefit from the relaxing and soothing scent of cedarwood oil.
How You’ll Benefit from Using Cedarwood Oil
Cedarwood oil doesn’t just benefit you by helping you go to sleep easier. If you can fall asleep faster and spend less time tossing and turning in your bed, that’s going to benefit you the next day. You’ll spend more of your night sleeping and wake up with energy and more motivation for the day.
Think of times where you woke up feeling still tired, like you needed more sleep. You may have had trouble getting out of bed and getting your day started. Cedarwood oil helps you with those kinds of problems.
It relaxes your brain before going to sleep so that you sleep more soundly. You’re less likely to wake up during the night or be fidgety in bed. That means the time you spend in bed sleeping is more effective and more beneficial to you.
You get to enjoy all those sleep benefits that you might have missed out on before. You’ll have more focus the next day and have a better mood as well. You’re less likely to be irritable, tired, lethargic tired or unmotivated. Missing out on sleep is serious stuff, which is why I recommend cedarwood oil as a sleep aid for someone who is having trouble getting enough sleep.
Sure, you could try starting your morning off with extra coffee when you’re overtired, but that just treats the symptoms and not the root cause. What you really need is more restful sleep, and cedarwood oil before you sleep can help with that.
Even trying to cover up your tiredness with multiple cups of coffee just means that you still have to make up that sleep later on. In fact, you can end up being more tired at the end of the day than you would if you’d skipped out on loading up on all that coffee.
Cedarwood oil is really helpful to anyone who suffers from insomnia, anxiousness, stress, and fidgeting at bedtime. If you have kids who are little overactive at bedtime and have trouble calming down and going to sleep, you may want to use a little cedar wood oil with them. That can help your child to relax and go to sleep faster, making sure they’re rested the next day and not tired and irritable all morning.
I like cedarwood oil as a sleep aid because of how safe it is- not just for adults but for kids as well. I like how soothing it is and how it can help with problems like stress and anxiety. If you’re looking for a natural way to treat bedtime restlessness, you may want to keep some cedarwood oil on hand.
I’m Jennifer a beauty and wellness expert. I believe in promoting a sustainable and healthy lifestyle from within. Helping people feel good is my passion; whether it’s teaching yoga or offering skincare advice.
