5 Flower Essences To Help You Sleep Better + How To Use Them

Mental stress keeping you up at night? Flower essences may be the key to helping a good night's sleep finally blossom for you.

Unlike pharmaceutical drugs or even herbal medicine, flower essences work on an energetic level to inspire emotional well-being. They can help address the underlying stress patterns that keep us from resting well.

There is no one flower essence to help you sleep, but many. That's because the mental trigger that causes agitation for one person may be different than it is for another. So when it comes to looking for a flower essence (or a combination of them) that will be beneficial to you, you'll want to consider your personal stress trigger.

Below are five flower essences that may be helpful. But if these don't address the root cause of your unrest, don't worry. A little bit of DIY research about flower essences or a consultation with a practitioner, can help you find the ones that are best suited for your sleep needs.

1. White Chestnut

If you can't sleep because your mind is a merry go-round, cycling from one thought to the other, White Chestnut is a flower essence to consider. It's like a botanical pause button for mind chatter, helping to interrupt the endless loop of replayed dialogues, events and other details of the day that has you mentally tossing and turning.

2. Red Chestnut

If you're staying up at night worrying about something for someone else — whether it's your partner's job security, your aging parent's health or the current whereabouts of your teenager — Red Chestnut may be your flower ally. It yields an inspiration of trust and compassionate detachment that can be pacifying, encouraging the mind to rest more readily, a promising invitation to better sleep.

3. Aspen

You know those times when you're feeling a bit anxious but you can't pinpoint the reason? There's something that's just not right, although you can't quite place your finger on what's bothering you and keeping you awake. If a nebulous sense of foreboding and concern is shrouding you from sleep, Aspen flower essence may be a good go-to elixir. It's the remedy noted for sensitive types who sometimes experience the disquieting feeling that stems from fear of the unknown.

4. Mimulus

For some, it's the Aspen-type vague anxiousness that keeps them away from shut-eye. Yet for others, the barrier to forty winks is a fear that they can readily attribute to a known cause, whether it's the evening's thunderstorm, the speech they are delivering the next day, or something else identifiable. If this is the case, Mimulus is a good flower essence to consider to help you face those fears.

5. Vervain

It's great to be excited, passionate about what we're creating in our lives. Yet, sometimes an abundance of enthusiasm for a project we're focused on during the day can keep us up at night. If you need to calm an over-activated, aroused mind so that you can lull yourself into the quietude of sleep, Vervain flower essence may be for you.

How To Use Them

You can find flower essences in natural food stores or holistic pharmacies. All of the flower essences noted are Bach flowers. The Bach Centre suggests a protocol of using two drops, four times a day. You can either take them directly from the bottle or mix them with some water.