A Good Night’s Sleep.
Resource Traditional Home Remedies by Martha White, pg. 107-109
Pillows for Peaceful Nights
To make a sleep pillow, make an inner cloth envelope of cheese cloth or tulle for the herbs.
Sleep Pillow
½ C chamomile flowers
½ C rosemary leaves
½ C pine needles
1 C lavender flowers
2 T lemon verbena leaves
1 T pinhead orrisroot (a stabilizer)
½ t oil of lavender
Combine ingredients and fill cloth envelope. Slip it inside washable pillowcase.
Dream Pillow
½ C mugwort leaves
½ C lavender flowers
½ C spearmint or peppermint leaves
2 T thyme leaves
2 T rosemary leaves
1 T pinhead orrisroot (a stabilizer)
Besides sleep pillows there are these other remedies.
Eating lettuce with your dinner is supposed to be calming, helping you to sleep and have pleasant dreams. Some say you should not have vinegar with your lettuce. Both lettuce and cucumbers are ruled by the moon, which some say make them good sleep remedies.
Mandarin oranges are soporifics(cause sleep), so consider adding them to your evening meal.
Sprinkle infusions of dill on your pillowcases and quickly iron them dry or fluff them in a clothes dryer.
A tea of elderberry flowers (sambucus nigra) is considered sleep inducing and relaxing to the nerves. (caution if pregnant!)
Native Americans also made a sleep syrup from poppy seeds and flowers or a tea from poppy heads decocted in water.
Valerian (sometimes called tobacco plant or all-heal) tea or capsules are frequently mentioned as a primary aid for those having trouble sleeping. Infusion: pour a cup of boiling water onto 1-2 teaspoonfuls of the root and let it infuse for 10-15 minutes. This should be drunk when needed. Same can be done with Lady’s Slipper tea.
Because these sedatives have a calming effect they benefit each of the systems of the body; circulatory system, respiratory, digestive, urinary, muscle and bone, nervous system and skin.*
*The Herbal Handbook – A User’s Guide to Medical Herbalism by David Hoffman (pg 85)