If you have ever battled insomnia, you know it is a life altering problem. 

Sleep is one of our major recuperative needs, second only to food and water in its health effects. I have insomnia and cannot sleep for more than a few hours. It has been a problem for the last 5 years and I have had to learn coping mechanisms and ways to treat this unfortunate and exhausting condition. My garden is a large part of my natural cure for insomnia and its side effects. 

Natural Insomnia Remedies 

I don’t do pharmacological pills. I don’t trust them, nor their side effects. I would rather put my trust in things I grow, that I know are non-GMO and non-toxic. So when I have a health problem, it’s my garden I turn to for answers and results. Fresh and dried herbs offer me a medicine cabinet full of goodies to treat many issues. Several of my herbs help me with my insomnia. 

I have always loved the scent of lavender, and I have always grown it. When I first began experiencing insomnia, I looked to my herbal book to see what I had in the garden that might help. Turns out, lavender was reported to have beneficial effects to combat this debilitating condition. So off I went to harvest the lovely scented flowers. 

Lavender for Insomnia

Harvesting lavender is a bit time consuming. I use some very small snippers, put down my little weeding mat and patiently trim off every one of the flowers. These go onto an old window screen to dry. When they are dry, I rub them in my hands to separate the tiny flowers from the stems. The resulting harvest goes into the freezer until I need fresh scent. 

I have made small drawstring bags to put my lavender in. I actually made a slew of them a couple of holiday seasons ago to give to my friends. Filled with the small flowers they release gentle scent that calms and relaxes. I keep my little bag under my pillow. When I wake up and can’t go back to sleep, I just reach under my pillow and pull out the sachet. A few whiffs and I return the bag back to its hiding place, but I am much more relaxed and can usually fall back to sleep. 

Chamomile for Insomnia

Another tool in my arsenal is chamomile. It is another plant that is a pain in the you- know-what to harvest. The yellow flowers must be separated in a painstaking manner from the stems and then dried. The resulting tea I make is nothing like the store bought variety. The fresh scent and flavor offer healing benefits that have been processed out of grocery store tea. It lowers my anxiety and a cup before bed helps bring on the goodness of sleep. 

We use a lot of what we grow to help heal ourselves. Whether it’s the goodies from the veggie garden or the natural cures from herbs, there are plenty of things in the garden that do our bodies good. Mother Nature is a neat lady. She provides us with nearly everything we need to live a comfortable, delicious, and restful life.