The Citrus Oil That May Help You Sleep

We discuss a citrus oil, but unlike most bright daytime scents, research suggests it may support relaxation, mood, and sleep quality. Tonight’s episode explains why a popular citrus oil may help the nervous system shift from stress into rest — and how to test it as a simple bedtime cue. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Night Shift with Justin S. King, How to Transform Your Life One Night at a Time. Tonight I am going to be discussing a surprising essential oil that may help you sleep better. As I spoke in the past about essential oils to help trigger an evening routine and even wind down. One of the reasons that essential oils are so strong for s for sleep and relaxation, or they may help it with that, are that the olfactory system or your sense of smell is one of the fastest ways to downshift your nervous system and help with emotional regulation as well as conditioning yourself that it's time for bed. In the past, I talked about picking one blend or one essential oil to use at different times of the day to try to trigger different times of your day you're in. Like, are you in a windown? Are you going to sleep? Are you in a focus mode? And one of the most surprising oils, but with the probably the second most evidence that it helps you with sleep or that it may help you with sleep is bergamo, a citrus oil. When you think of citrus, I usually think of like waking the waking up and getting energy. But the surprising thing is that bergamo is slightly different as a citrus oil. It is sometimes used in earl gray tea and has a fresh, slightly floral, almost bitter orange smell. And it is interesting because it contains compounds like it's interesting because it contains some of the same chemistry that gives lavender part of its calming reputation. So sleep benefit may not be from be that that bergamo knocks you out, but it helps you to lower your emotional noise and to help you start to unwind. One study had universal students, university students use bergamo before bed and when they woke up, and they reported better sleep length, better refreshment on waking, and less stress, anxiety, and depression. Another study used a blend of lavendin, bergamo, and langling with cardiac rehab patients. Their sleep quality scores improved compared to a placebo group. And the honest part is that not every study shows a direct sleep effect. In postpartum women, bergamo improved mood, but it did not significantly improve sleep quality. Although there is another oil that did help sleep quality in postpartum women that I may cover in a future episode. So I think one of the main benefits of bergamo is that it may help your nervous system shift from daytime stress into nighttime recovery and to help relieve that stress while putting some of the uplifting elements that you get from a citrus oil, but without the energizing part of those. So here's your night shift experiment. If you are using or trying essential oils as part of your evening routine, grab a bottle of bergamo essential oil. If you want my recommendations on which to pick, head over to my website at justinasking.com and try it for seven nights before sleep. You can put a drop on your wrist or the bottom of your feet, or you can diffuse it by your bed for 15 to 20 minutes and see how that works for you. That's it for tonight's episode of Night Shift. My name is Justin S. King, and I help entrepreneurs find peace tonight, tomorrow, and for the rest of their lives through sleep optimization, emotion regulation, and discovering their purpose. Good night.