Sleep & dreams

The tradition kept sleep and dreams apart: a lavender sachet was to bring a calm night, lemon balm and German chamomile the evening quiet, and dreams were interpreted at the breakfast table. The herb was part of the passage between day and night — scent, a warm cup, lights out.

The catalogue lists seven native species here: German chamomile, valerian, English lavender, small-leaved lime, lemon balm and both mints. Four of them — chamomile, lavender, lime and lemon balm — are also listed under the sleep topic, valerian and the mints are extra here; this page is about the evening ritual and dreaming, the practical part about insomnia is there.

Everyone dreams every night, including those who do not remember it; remembering depends on which phase one wakes in. More vivid dreams after stopping alcohol, sleeping pills or antidepressants are a known and passing phenomenon, not an omen.

Lavender scent has several small studies on sleep quality, valerian conflicting data in insomnia; none of it concerns the content of dreams. Dream interpretation is a cultural practice with a long history, but no method of interpretation has evidence that it tells a person something they did not know.

Dreams during which a person shouts, kicks or gets up and their partner is afraid of them belong with a neurologist: 'acting out dreams' can precede a neurological disease by years and can be examined in a sleep laboratory. Night terrors in children look dreadful, but the child does not remember them in the morning and they mostly pass by themselves.

Recurring nightmares after a distressing event belong with a psychologist, especially if a person is afraid to fall asleep. Loud snoring with pauses in breathing and daytime tiredness is sleep apnoea — an examination, not a sachet. Anyone on sleeping pills or psychiatric medication does not add valerian or any other herb without asking.