Dear 3 AM, We Have To Stop Meeting This Way.

If you ask my children what I am bad at, you better hope there is a comfy place to sit.  Their first answer would probably be cooking.  It’s not that I am terrible, but I made a butternut squash soup once that apparently left an emotional scar.
If you ask my husband, the answer is simple — sleep.  I am, in fact, a terrible sleeper.
As a child, I remember going to the doctor to discuss my insomnia.  He asked me what I thought about when I woke up.  The answer was all sorts of things: what to wear for school, a great idea for my science project, a funny joke, get-togethers I didn’t want to forget, problems at school, an upcoming sporting event.  His solution was simple and very effective, keep a notebook by your bed and when you wake up write your thoughts down.
As I got older, sleeplessness was more the result of real problems than exciting ideas and the journal didn’t cut it. The pinnacle of my stress insomnia was when I started this company.  My work life was all-consuming, I took everything personally, and my to-do list was longer than Santa’s scroll.
A few years ago, I was told by my doctor that I was in peri-menopause, which means I get to experience seriously annoying bodily weirdness and insomnia.  Wonderful, let’s double down on this problem, shall we?
Insomnia from menopause is different from sleeplessness from stress.  It’s somewhat peaceful, like “let’s wake up and read and sweat.”  The end result, however, is still feeling unrested the next day.
Over the last few months, I started a new bedtime routine that focused on Lavender and it has drastically reduced the amount of times I wake up mid-sleep.  The calming effects of Lavender have been confirmed over and over again in studies.  The National Sleep Foundation cites a study confirming that those who sniff Lavender before bed have deeper sleep and feel more vigorous in the morning.  Another study found that infants cried less and slept more deeply after a bath in Lavender-scented oil.  In the past, I tried using Lavender oil alone, but it didn’t significantly combat my insomnia.  Perhaps this new routine’s addition of other calming oils that gives it a little extra muscle against insomnia.
I shared this routine with a few people and the next thing I knew my phone was filled with women telling me how much better they were sleeping.  I hope these tricks work for you!
Step 1:
The final step in my face wash and moisturize routine for the night is to apply LimeLife’s Dew Date.  This oil has Lavender, but it also has a calming combination of flower and seed extracts.

Step 2:
I dive into and swim in a sea of Forty Cure Crème.  I apply it all over my body, but I make sure to put it on my chest and neck.  This crème contains Lavender, and its combination with Rosemary oil is like getting a warm hug!

Step 3, Last Step:
I spray my bed linens with L’Occitane’s Aromachologie Pillow Mist.  I first discovered this while staying in a hotel in Provence, France owned by the L’Occitane Group.  In the evening, someone came in and sprayed this on my bedding and I just about fell asleep where I stood.

Booster Step:
I apply this magic patch to my chest on nights when I think I might have trouble sleeping or if I had a bad night the previous night.  I found them in Vermont and I absolutely love them.

If these tricks don’t work for you every night, might I recommend one of my favorite books, “Where Did You Go, Bernadette?” by Maria Semple.  Be warned, you might wake your household up with laughter!