Home Base: The Life Domestic - Insomnia Busters

For the past few months I've been having a tough time falling asleep at night. My normal sleep time these days is 2am or 3am, and there have been days when I was only able to catch the zzzs at 4am and 5am. There were a couple of times when I was actually up until 7am!

I have always had some form of sleep trouble. There are months when I am perfectly fine and then suddenly, I'm not. The weird thing is that I sometimes fall asleep when I'm not supposed to and I'm actually doing stuff. I've fallen asleep while watching TV, reading a book, and texting on my phone, but this has never happened to me at night.

I figure stress is the main cause of my insomnia problems so I'm mainly trying to be happy and not worry too much. I've also stopped having any form of caffeine in the evenings, and sometimes I just have warm milk instead. I also try to relax at night now. I avoid cramming work and pulling all-nighters if I can help it. I am also currently trying to stop surfing on my phone whenever I can't fall asleep because it only makes me even more awake.

There are three things however that have helped me immensely. I call them my insomnia busters. Note that I have never considered sleeping pills, and I've only been trying natural remedies. Here's a rundown.

Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Herbal Tea
This tea is wonderful at helping me get drowsy. I first tried chamomile tea in Shanghai and I was really surprised then that it made me really sleepy. When I started having bouts of insomnia, I tried the K-cup version for the Keurig, and thought it was even better than plain chamomile tea!

It's a blend of chamomile, spearmint, and lemongrass, that's why it's so good. Other ingredients include tilia flowers, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms, hawthorn, and rosebuds, which give it such a soothing scent and flavor. We only had a limited number of the K-cups though and have yet to find a seller here. Luckily, I found the tea bag version at the grocery store and bought a box. Now whenever I still feel active around bedtime, I just steep a bag. This tea really helps me relax before bed. It's a real cup of comfort.

 
Badger Sleep Balm
I discovered this in Rustan's. I was just looking through the beauty section and happened upon the Badger stand, and I was drawn to the cute tins. I looked it up after and saw that a lot of people swear by the sleep balm. At the time, I wasn't having trouble sleeping but my friends were, so I recommended it to them and they all said it was effective! Eventually, I got a tin when I started having trouble and it has been amazing.

Basically, it's an all-natural balm made with soothing ingredients like lavender, bergamot, rosemary, ginger, and balsam fir. The fragrance from the oils in the balm helps calm thoughts and clear the mind. You rub it in your temples, wrists, and put a bit on your cupid's bow. It's not sticky, it smells wonderful, and it gets absorbed into the skin quickly so you don't have to worry about it making a mess on your sheets.

It really works! Sometimes I spend a couple of hours in bed trying to count sheep, and that's when I remember the balm. By then though, I've already spent some time feeling anxious and sleepless and it doesn't work. When I do remember to use it after only a few minutes of tossing and turning, it works like magic.

Badger Stress Soother Balm

The last thing in my sleep arsenal is this stress soother balm. It works exactly like the sleep balm, but the only difference is that it targets stress. There are times when I can't sleep because I'm feeling too anxious, and I just rub some on my hands and temples. The fragrance helps me calm down, which eventually helps me sleep. 

This has extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, tangerine, spearmint, cedarwood, roman chamomile, lavender, and rose. I wasn't always a believer in aromatherapy until I tried this stuff. 

Have you ever had trouble falling asleep? What are the remedies you've tried? Let me know in the comments!