Do you suffer from stress or sleeplessness?
Physical support for your nervous system
There can be many reasons for sleeplessness or for finding it difficult to cope. Understanding the cause will help direct you to a solution.
Magnesium
Magnesium: Your high stress or poor sleep could be a physical problem. If you are lacking in magnesium, which is an essential mineral for health, your whole nervous system could be out of kilter, indeed stress can lead to magnesium depletion which will compound the problem. Taking a magnesium supplement or soaking in a magnesium bath, which has the added benefit of soothing and relaxing you before bed, could be what you need to ease your stress and reestablish your good sleep.
We only sell supplements which we know to be of good quality and effective. Each of the trusted manufacturers whose products we sell has slightly different priorities in developing their recipes for ease and sleep. One may suit you.
Perhaps the physical support you need for your nervous system is not to do with a lack of certain nutrients but more to do with a hormonal or other imbalance. Ashwagandha is an adaptogen which means that it does not force a change, nor does it provide something that is missing such as a vitamin or a mineral. Instead it helps your body to get back into its own best balance, helping your body to harmonise anything that is too much or too little. Hifas Da Terra medicinal mushroom, Reishi, also works in this way.
Ashwagandha
Sleepy and calming aromas
Lavender has a long association with better sleep and chamomile with the easing of anxiety and the soothing of frayed nerves. But aroma is highly evocative and you may find that the oil that comforts you is very individual to you. I would choose Frankincense for its profoundly grounding qualities and Clary sage, which stabilises scattered, restless thoughts, is loved by many.
Bach Flower Essences
Worries, one on top of another, beset our emotions, monopolise our thoughts, drag us down and wear us to a raveling. If your anxiety is building, affecting your day to day life and overcoming your ability to cope, perhaps you can get support from one of the flower remedies.
For Cherry Plum the fear is of the mind being over-strained, of reason giving way, of doing fearful and dreaded things. There is the impulse to do things we know are wrong. The remedy gives the sufferer the mental strength and confidence to know they are not the puppet of their impulses.
Clematis is for people whose minds drift away from the present into fantasies of the future, or into alternative versions of the present. Often they dream of future success, creative endeavour, and achievement. The danger is that they are not sufficiently anchored in reality to make their dreams happen. The remedy helps bring us back to earth and back to ourselves so that we can act to build a better life, instead of living in daydreams.
Impatiens, the Healing Herb remedy for impatience and the frustration and the irritability that can go with it. For the person who finds other peoples’ slowness so annoying they prefer to work alone. The remedy helps us be less hasty and more relaxed with others.
Rock rose is the rescue remedy to use in cases of urgency and danger. When things are desperate, when what you feel is terror or panic, when it seems that all hope is lost. When there is the danger of suicide, insanity, or nervous breakdown, fear of death or hopeless depression. The effect of Rock Rose is courage renewed.
Star of Bethlehem is for those in great distress, for example from the shock of serious news, the loss of someone dear or the fright following an accident. For those who find consolation impossible this remedy allows the acceptance of comfort and reassurance.
Healing Herbs are specialist Bach flower essence makers. They make every essence according to the original directions of Dr Edward Bach taking exceptional care to produce the best quality essences.
Bach Flower remedies work well in combination. Go to the Healing Herbs website to learn which combination of flower essences is best suited to you. We can make up a combination for you in the shop. There are also night and exam combinations for sale or the Five Flower combination which is Dr Edward Bach’s time tested rescue remedy combination.
Australian Bush Flower Essences
Brought to us by Ian White who is a fifth-generation Australian herbalist with a beautiful intuition about healing and nature, the Australian Bush Flower Essences can have a profoundly positive effect on our emotions.
The Australian Bush Flower Essence Black Eyed Susan is beneficial when you feel you must be on the go, on the go, on the go, constantly striving and hurried, cramming too many activities into the day. The positive quality it brings is stillness within yourself.
You can turn to Crowea when you feel something is not right but you can’t work out exactly what it is that is wrong. All you can feel is the panic and worry, worry, worry. Crowea for when you need to find your centre again.
Fringed Violet is protective after a shock or trauma: loss of a loved one, bad news, surgery, fright.
Macrocarpa is useful at times of stress: exams, childbirth, competitive sports. At times when there is exhaustion of the adrenal glands after delivering a difficult goal. Perhaps an end to energy, vitality and physical endurance - total burn out and break down. Begin with one step and learn how to rest.
Waratah when you are facing the black night of the soul - war, disaster, financial shock. The positive side to the remedy is remembering old survival skills, becoming more adaptable, remembering your ability to cope.
Melatonin and Valerian
There are other sleep aids such as Melatonin and Valerian which, although they are natural, (melatonin is a hormone and valerian is a herb), they do have quite a strong effect and so can have side effects and do not suit everyone. It is better to support your body to change rather than to force it to change and Melatonin and Valerian are both on the border between support and force. Because of this strong effect we would not recommend that you use them continually but they may be useful for a temporary sleep problem; people use them for jet lag or to break a habit of sleeplessness. Also we humans are are highly individual and Melatonin or Valerian could be what works for you. Both Melatonin and Valerian shorten the time it takes to fall asleep so if that is where your difficulty with sleep lies they could be worth a try. People who experience only the good effects of Melatonin or Valerian report feeling “refreshed” the next morning and “no daytime sleepiness”.
Dr Wolz is a very reputable brand from Germany making very effective products. Their melatonin sleep spray also contains passion flower. Passion flower has been shown to have anxiety calming and sedative effects. Peace and Calm is a valerian tincture. Valerian is a traditional Irish herbal medicine for the relief of mild stress and to aid sleep.
Perhaps you have all the minerals, vitamins and adaptogens that you need and yet you still feel bad? What you may need is a trigger, something to stimulate your body to start using the supplements you have been feeding it
With homeopathy we treat long term stress and sleeplessness very differently from the short term. If the stress and sleeplessness is short term, stemming form recent circumstances, a short term “acute” homeopathic remedy may be what is needed. For instance; Nux vomica, Gelsemium, Rhus tox, arg nit, aconite or even arnica which is excellent for jet lag after a bruising flight.
Treating stress with Homeopathy
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Nux Vomica
Nux vomica is the remedy to help the student before the exam or anyone approaching a deadline who has had late nights, snacks instead of meals and mainline coffee. Nux vomica is for someone who responds to pressure with harder work, Stuck to their desk with work or study, using coffee or fast food to positively drive them on, with no time for exercise. Then reaps the negative effects of grumpiness and waking at 4am on the rack of worry. If this is you consider trying the homeopathic remedy nux vomica.
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Gelsemium
Gelsemium is the homeopathic remedy for sleeplessness with flu symptoms when it feels like all you need is a good nights sleep to shake off the achy headachy feeling of a hard day. It feels like you only need to lie down but when you eventually make it to bed YOU CAN’T SLEEP! If this is the flu coming on gelsemium will help you with the flu and with the sleeplessness. But this picture can also come up when you are tired and stressed before a big event. If you are feeling wobbly and ‘off’ leading up to an important meeting or event, gelsemium will settle the nerves and the sleep.
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Rhus tox
The sleeplessness of Rhus tox is that awful, painful, restlessness that comes on after a day of physical labour: digging in the garden, hefting furniture, running a 5K with no training. Because the person who needs rhus tox feels better for movement you may feel no ill effects from pushing your body until you try to rest or sleep. In fact you may be happily thinking you got away with it until you lie down to sleep. The pains and discomfort of rhus tox come on in the evening when you sit down to rest and continue through the night unless you have a chance to take the homeopathic remedy rhus tox.
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Argentum nitricum
Argentum nitricum,is one of the most useful stress remedies. It is the ‘butterflies in the tummy’ remedy, much worse coming up to an event. The person who needs arg nit dreads the coming exam, driving test, even party, to the extent that the butterflies can turn to diarrhoea. Forced by their dread and impulse to escape they get more and more hurried and chaotic. They lose their sense of balance and become inco-ordinated and easily frightened which puts their nerves even more on edge. Arg nit is one of the remedies for fear of flying. Because of their hairline trigger for fright and their terrible need to escape, that flying tube is a horror for the person who needs arg nit.
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Aconite
Aconite is the remedy for the person suddenly catapulted into extreme fear by something very bad happening. For instance after an accident even with a lucky escape the person needing aconite may be reacting extremely, convinced they are going to die. So convinced are they that they tell everyone, panicking for help. Aconite is also the panic attack remedy where this terrible panic comes on suddenly seemingly for no reason. The cause of the panic is probably somewhere in the past but a trivial, maybe unconscious trigger can bring it right back to its full extent with accompanying physical symptoms and the overwhelming fear that death is coming.
Consultation for long term sleeplessness or stress
Long term or “chronic” sleeplessness is a more complex problem requiring a consultation with a homeopath who will take a full history and work with you to understand the roots and causes of your individual problem with sleep and stress. Having come to an understanding of the full picture the homeopath will prescribe a deeper “constitutional” remedy which will go to the core of the issue, helping generally with stress and eliminating the trigger for sleeplessness. For instance the homeopathic remedy arsenicum is for much more chronic, low level, grinding anxiety giving the sufferer no rest. The person who needs arsenicum may pace the floor or tidy every last detail of their house in the hope that once everything is in its place they will, at last, be able to rest. They feel exhausted and cold and much worse when they are alone. They may cling to family members or friends or constantly worry about them until they retutrn.