For years, people have thought that we cannot control our nightmares and dreams. However, what if I told you that certain essential oils might actually improve your dreams? It is not a confirmed regular occurrence, but with certain aromatherapy scents, you might be able to encourage better, even more vivid dreams. If you want to learn more about this connection, you have come to the right place!
In this article, we will uncover how aromatherapy can improve your dreams, potentially even influencing emotions. We’ll explore some of the most popular scents, like lavender, and even dive deep into what research says about potentially limiting nightmares through this holistic practice. By this end, you’ll know all you need to so you can use aromatherapy for better, more pleasant reveries.
Lavender Can Promote Relaxation and Vivid Dreaming
Many people know the transformative power of lavender, as it has long been known to help alleviate anxiety, whether used during a massage or as an aromatherapy tool. According to some experts, essential oils like lavender can help with promoting restful sleep that can lead to more memorable dreams, most of them pleasant.
That could be why when you use lavender essential oils in aromatherapy, you sometimes enjoy a more restful sleep and wake up remembering your dreams. If you have some lavender essential oil at home, it might be a good idea to see if it helps you with rest and dreaming. It’s important to remember that not everyone will remember their dreams. However, other scents can help influence emotions, potentially improving—or worsening—your dreams.
Certain Scents Can Influence Emotions
If lavender can influence feelings of relaxation and alleviate anxiety, it only makes sense that certain scents can affect emotions and make you feel a certain way. Chamomile and lavender are the best essential oils for those seeking relaxation or a limitation of their anxiety and stress. These oils can also influence your dreams (Source: PubMed).
Here are some other essential oils and how they can influence your emotions and dreams:
- Citrus Scents: Most citrus scents, like sweet orange, yuzu, and bergamot, have an anti-anxiety effect and can also improve mood.
- Rosemary and Sage: If you desire a positive effect on mood, rosemary, and sage are known for providing mental clarity and improving moods over time.
- Cypress and Peppermint: For those wanting to feel more energized, cypress and peppermint can be a great way to warm the body and elevate your emotions.
- Ylang-Ylang and Ginger: For a more soothing effect, you can also use scents like myrrh, ylang-ylang, and ginger to relax the body and mind.
- Cedarwood and Sandalwood: If you are interested in more woody aromas, these two are not only pleasant to smell but also great at promoting sleep, reducing stress and anxiety, and improving your focus.
There are so many other essential oils that can be used for specific emotions or effects. Still, even with just the ones above, you can encourage more restful sleep and potentially even better dreams because of your emotional state.
Aromatherapy Might Reduce Nightmares and Improve Sleep
Now that you understand specific essential oils and how they can impact your emotions, it makes sense that they might be able to reduce nightmares while definitely improving your sleep. There is no sure way to reduce or stop nightmares altogether, but aromatherapy can help encourage less disruptive sleep.
One study conducted on children showed that, after inhaling Rosa damascene, they improved their sleep quality and did not have as many nightmares or disruptions overnight (Source: Research Journal of Pharmacognosy). Other studies have also shown that those with sleep disturbances like nightmares would benefit from aromatherapy, which can limit these sleep disruptions, with lavender being the most studied and used.
While it has not been proven that this is a widespread effect, it does show that aromatherapy can help us sleep better and experience fewer nightmares.
Specific Essential Oils Can Enhance Sleep Stages
We know that essential oils can improve sleep, but they can also impact specific stages of sleep. Lavender, the most studied essential oil, has been shown to help with specific stages of sleep, including stage 2 NREM sleep. Interestingly enough, one study showed that while women saw an increase in their stage 2 NREM sleep, men saw the exact opposite effect (Source: Journal of Chinese Medicine Association).
This same study also suggests that lavender can influence brain activity, potentially confirming what many other studies have merely proposed. What this means is pretty interesting: not only can essential oils like lavender impact sleep stages and even improve them, but our olfactory system is still working and processing stimuli, even amid sleep! That’s incredible news, but it shows how aromatherapy might impact our dreams. An improvement in our overall rest and stage 2 NREM sleep might affect our dreams, precisely their clarity and intensity.
Try Aromatherapy for Enhanced Dreams and Sleep Quality
If you’re seeking a way to enhance your dreams, the research we have discussed shows that aromatherapy might be the perfect solution. By understanding how lavender can promote relaxation and how certain scents can make you feel certain emotions, you can already see how essential oils might influence our reveries.
However, it can also limit our nightmares and enhance our sleep stages, bringing about more creativity and clarity. To learn more about dreams, sleep health, and everything in between, visit our website today for more articles on the latest insights from the field
