Home Made Sleep Potion: Passionflower and Valerian Tincture

Sleep is something I often struggle with because I feel like I am wound up and frantic and can’t slow down enough to slip into slumber. There are two beautiful herbs that are wonderfully sleep inducing so I have since prepared myself a tincture with them to help me unwind and nod off. In addition, I infused the alcohol (used as a solvent for the herbs) with a smoky quartz crystal. Here is a little about all three ingredients:

Smoky Quartz Crystal:

Smoky quartz is hands down the crystal for stress. If you are wound up and stressy, you may find it very hard to drift off at night. Smoky quartz is a lovely earthy brown colour, and relates to the base chakra. It is incredibly grounding and helps ‘bring you back down to earth’ and settle and relax you, diffusing stress and anxiety. By infusing the vodka with this crystal before making the tincture, the vibrations of the stone are able to transfer over to the liquid ready for us to take later on.

Valerian Root:

Both Valerian Root and Passionflower are classed as hypnotics (that is, they help induce sleep), Valerian being the stronger of the two. It has a characteristic pong but we overlook that for her ability to help us snooze. These herbal sedatives relax the nervous system and ease tension.

Cautions: May potentiate the effects of Central Nervous System depressants or alcohol [1].

Passionflower:

Combines synergistically with Valerian for insomnia. It is also an anxiolytic - so is useful where there is anxiety. The perfect herb for restlessness and irritability with difficulty in falling asleep [1]. I found packets of both these dried herbs at my local organic health food store.

 

 

Passionflower and Valerian Tincture

Ingredients:

• 50g passionflower, dried
• 50g valerian root, dried
• 500ml 100 proof vodka (50% alcohol volume) [2]

Optional:

• Smoky quartz crystal

Equipment:

• 500ml capacity glass jar with lid
• Dark amber glass dropper bottles
• Fine mesh bag
• Funnel

METHOD:

1. This first step is optional but I highly recommend it for a little extra special magic to this tincture. Take your smoky quartz crystal and place it in a glass jar, then sit it in a larger bowl filled with your vodka. Leave to infuse overnight under a full moon or for a full day in the pure sunlight. Remove the crystal after this time – your vodka is now ready for use.
2. To prepare the herbal tincture, add the dried herbs to a sterilised glass jar and pour over the vodka. Label and date the jar. Fasten the lid tightly and store somewhere away from direct sunlight.
3. Leave this to infuse for about six weeks. You may need to top up the alcohol level as time goes by. Notice how the colour changes.
4. After the infusion process, decant the tincture and wring through a fine mesh bag to press out the precious mixture from the dried roots and herb.
5. Funnel the tincture into dark amber glass dropper bottles.

Dosage:

Best taken 45 minutes before bedtime to enable the herbs to take effect. 10 drops in a little water or juice.

1. Bone, K., & Mills, S. (2013). Principles and practices of phytotherapy (2nd ed.). China: Elsevier.

2. Ganora, L. (2009). Herbal Constituents. Foundations of Phytochemistry. Louisville, Colorado: Herbalchem Press.