I’ve considered for a while writing a full post on sleep hygiene and I think that’s coming but real quick, I want to introduce you to my new friend to aid in sleep: lemon balm.
I’ve known for years that lemon balm aids with sleep when drunk as a tisane, especially with chamomile. However, I already drink my homemade combination of golden milk with reishi cacao. I spent some time on those recipes this spring, which will also be forthcoming in a post, if you’re interested. So, drinking lemon balm tisane in addition to the golden milk would prove burdensome.
Then a friend told me of her experiences with a popular new gummy vitamin for women’s cycles. She raved about it but at first glance, I knew it wasn’t for me. I don’t like all these subscription services. I know they cost way more than D.I.Y. and like gym memberships, there’s always some way to get you to keep spending your money. Instead, I looked up the ingredients for said gummy.
3 main ingredients. All readily available. So much less expensive to buy them and take them as capsules. My go-to for such purchases is either Vitacost or Mountain Rose Herbs.
One of the ingredients is (you guessed it) lemon balm.
The other ingredients are vitex or chasteberry extract and Dong quai. I’ve taken vitex previously with great success. I stopped taking it approximately ten years ago when I was trying to conceive with a great love of my life, at the request of the reproductive endocrinologist I was seeing. Alas (because I loved him and we wanted a child together), and also thankfully (now I love being single and childless), I never had the child we were trying for. I simply never started back up with vitex as my life went a very different direction.
I digress.
When I began this particular herbal regimen, I was taking one capsule each evening. I take the vitex and Dong quai mid-day. Then switched the lemon balm to two capsules at night after about two weeks.
I’m sleeping so incredibly well lately and even more so, I’m able to fall asleep fairly fast lately. The extra lemon balm is the only new addition and trust me, it’s not because of some sudden decrease of stress.
If you’re having trouble sleeping and you’ve tried plenty of other things, I attest to its benefits for me. I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice, just a helpful suggestion.