Valerian, natural sleep remedy

Are you tired of restless nights, disturbed sleep and morning headaches? Don’t want to use sleeping tablets which might cause dependency or unpleasant side effects?

Wouldn’t you like to have a restful night’s sleep with a little natural help? Well here are some possibilities for aids to a calm and refreshing night’s sleep which wont cause dependency, unpleasant side affects or leave you feeling groggy the morning after.

Valerian is one of the best gentle and harmless herbal sleeping remedies, it enhances the natural body process of slipping into sleep and making the stresses of the day recede. Particularly for people who do not need as much sleep as they once did, it also eases lying awake in bed, ensuring that it becomes a restful and relaxing experience.

This is can be as re-vivifying as sleep itself, and indeed all that is necessary in more cases than not. The true nature of sleep still remains a mystery. Everybody goes through stages of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, a stage where dreaming is associated with minor involuntary muscle jerks and rapid eye movements, indicating that active processes are occurring in the brain.

It is important not to suppress the dreams dreamed during this stage. Emotional experiences are processed by the mind in those dreams, and much arising from both the unconscious and daily life is balanced and harmonized. Whilst sleeping pills have a marked impact on REM, Valerian does not interfere with this process as it is not powerful enough to suppress these necessary REM phases.

The research into valerian is confirming the traditional experience of the herbalist. It has been shown that Valerian improves general sleep quality. Dream recall is relatively unaffected by Valerian. It also promotes an easily and quicker descent into sleep. Taking the herbs well before retiring, can reduce the noise induced disturbance of a number of sleep stage patterns. Much research has centered on its effects upon smooth muscle, demonstrating that it is a powerful and safe muscle relaxant. It can be safely used in muscle cramping, uterine cramps and intestinal colic. Valerian’s volatile oils do not simply have sedative properties but also a predominantly regulative effect on the autonomic system.

Amongst other effects, Valerian decreases both spontaneous and caffeine-stimulated muscular activity and decrease a number of measurable processes in the brain. Research comparing the relaxing properties of Valerian and a number of other plants on the muscles of the digestive tract, has shown Hawthorn and Valerian to be the best, followed by Passion Flower and Chamomile. Especially interesting is the finding that combining all the herbs acted in a synergistic way, being relaxing at low dosage levels.

Valerian is used world wide as a relaxing remedy in hypertension and stress related heart problems. There is an effect here beyond simple nerve relaxation, as it contains alkaloids that are capable of lowering abnormally high blood pressure. Such use is recognized by the World Health Organization.

To be effective it has to be used in sufficiently high dosage. The tincture is the most widely used preparation and is always useful, provided that the single dose is not counted in drops, but that 2.5-5ml (l/2 - l teaspoonful ) is given, and indeed sometimes 10 ml at one time. It is almost pointless to give ten or twenty drops of valerian tincture. Over dosage is highly unlikely, even with very much larger doses. For situations of extreme stress where a sedative or muscle relaxant effect is need fast, a single dose of one teaspoonful may be repeated two or three times at short intervals.

The dried herb is prepared as an infusion to ensure no loss of the volatile oils. Two teaspoons of the dried herb are used for each cup of tea prepared. With these doses expect a good relaxing, anti-spasmodic and sleep-inducing effect, and above all rapid sedation in states of excitement. A cold infusion may be used: a glass of cold water is poured over two teaspoons of valerian root and left to stand for 8-l0 hours.