How Lavender Oil Might Not Send You To Sleep! by Penny Price

I read a magazine article some time ago that told me what to do if I could not sleep. Their advice was to ‘sprinkle a few drops of lavender on your pillow before you go to bed’. Having been an aromatherapist for some 20 years now, rather than be glad that aromatherapy was becoming so popular that magazines wrote about it, the article made me angry. In my world, aromatherapy is a science, so the questions that came into my mind immediately where, how much is a few drops, and which lavender are they talking about?

There are over 500 different types of lavender plants. Some are cloned, some are seeded, some are grown high up in the French mountains and others are grown in Norfolk, England. While all lavender plants contain essential oil, the oil in each plant is different chemically. They all might resemble the lavender aroma, but will not have the same pharmacological effects on the body. For example, if you sprinkle a few drops of spike lavender on the pillow, rather than drop off to sleep, you could be dancing all night! Some lavender oils are better for arthritis, some for asthma, some for burns and skin complaints and some for stress and insomnia. The lavender oil needed to help promote sleep is True Lavender – Latin name Lavandula angustifolia. This lavender is not usually found in the shops in its original, unadulterated form and so even if you do buy a bottle of lavender with the right name on it, chances are, it will have been adulterated or it could even be a synthetic creation. True Lavender, to be effective, should be steam distilled and put straight into a bottle. Aromatherapists supply this type of essential oil – it is important that the therapist uses good quality essential oils to promote health and harmony in the client. The oil is not being used to freshen the air or polish furniture, but to bring about health and a sense of well-being.

Next we come to the ‘few drops’. Is this 2 drops or 20 drops? With the potency of essential oils, this is an important question indeed. Especially since 2 drops of true lavender will certainly promote sleep, but 20 drops will have the opposite effect! Just as the specification for the lavender oil is important, so is the dosage, especially with children and the elderly or frail.

Essential oils are energy in a bottle. Just the right amount of energy needs to be given to the individual to encourage the needed response. So instead of reading magazines, we should be visiting our local therapists for professional advice. Aromatherapy is more serious and more potent than the modern world would have us believe. While we can buy ‘aromatherapy’ shower gels, shampoos etc, we should realise that these simply refer to the product having a nice smell rather than affecting health.

One of the problems of lavender being so frequently used and widely available in less than organic, therapeutic form, is that members of the public are now developing sensitivities to it, particularly linalool, a component part of synthetic and natural lavender. Because of this it is usually best to do a skin test first or inhale the oil – but making sure the ‘few drops’ is controlled and used appropriately.

Training is absolutely essential if you want to be any sort of Complementary Therapist. There are no short cuts and no easy ways through – although training is usually enjoyable. To be a successful therapist, the greatest quality we look for as a school is a genuine desire to help people and an ability to listen to their problems. Aromatherapy, reflexology and massage in all its different forms are the most popular forms of complementary therapy and all of these areas are open to all kinds of people as long as the heart is in the right place!

Copyright 2007 Penny Price Aromatherapy | www.penny-price.com | 01455 251020