You’ve likely experienced a hangover if you’ve consumed too much alcoholic content or you’ve ingested alcohol on an empty stomach. The symptoms are clear. Fatigue and weakness, headaches and muscle aches, and nausea and vomiting are common problems associated with hangovers.
Over consumption of alcohol seems fun, especially when you’re having the time of your life, but hangovers aren’t pushovers. Not only do they carry nasty symptoms, but they affect your ability and performance.
Hangovers contribute to poor performance in the workplace, reduced efficiency at home, and mediocre performance at school. Research shows that alcohol hangovers may even have negative cognitive effects. Hangovers can also be fatal, especially since they affect driving performance. You don’t want to be behind the wheels of a moving vehicle while contending with a hangover.
3 Reasons Why Essential Oils Are Great For Hangovers
I don’t need to brag about the awesomeness of essential oils. That’s a list that would never end. But, for the sake of helping you deal with your hangover situation, I will tickle your fancy a bit. Below you’ll find 3 reasons why plant-based extracts are great for hangovers.
Regulate Your Emotions
Essential oils are great for hangovers because they regulate your emotions. Emotional disturbance can affect your capacity to perform at your peak. Essential oils grasp your hands, leading you to face your challenges with courage. Emotions do get messy and rocky. These plant-based extracts help by acting as a cleanser, rooting out negative and harmful emotions. Irritability, mood disturbances, and anger are emotions essential oils help to keep in check when you’re struggling with a hangover.
Improve Focus and Concentration
Hangovers affect the mind, dampening your cognitive abilities. You’re not able to perceive reality, especially when you’ve consumed a large amount of alcohol. Essential oils can make a difference. They can give your cognition a jump start, so that you can make better decisions and concentrate on what’s important.
Infuse Energy and Vitality Into The Body
Tiredness and fatigue are common assaults with hangovers. They can sap your energy, making it difficult to perform your usual tasks. As essential oils support detoxification and elimination, they may infuse your body with life and zest.
6 Best Essential Oils To Stop Hangover In Its Tracks
The essential oils in this list are recommended because of the effect they have. Hangovers impact the body in a variety of ways. Each oil selected has a different impact and remedy a specific symptom of a hangover.
1. Peppermint Essential Oil (Mentha piperita)
It’s uplifting, stimulating, and just the oil you need during your bouts of hangovers. Nausea and vomiting is a common associate of hangovers. There’s this overall nasty, sickening feeling you just can’t get past.
Peppermint may provide a bit of relief from nauseating feelings during a hangover. Based on a clinical study conducted, peppermint essential oil is not only a safe, but effective agent when used in antiemetic treatments. Although this study was specifically done for “chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting”, the results may prove promising for hangover victims.
Apply peppermint as a massage oil, rubbing 1 to 2 drops in a tablespoon of base oil to the abdomen in a clockwise direction.
2. Ginger Essential Oil (Zingiber officinale)
The ginger herb is special in many households, and the essential oil is no exception.
It’s a great companion to hang around when your hangovers loom over you. Tiredness and fatigue. Those two pack a punch when you’ve consumed too much alcohol. Well, ginger essential oil packs an even bigger punch and may be used to relieve feelings of listlessness and tiredness after consuming too much alcohol.
The brain performs at a snail’s pace when you’re tired. Ginger essential oil, with its warming and arousing effect, wakes your mind up so that you can feel revitalized. The oil’s aroma is spicy and peppery, all the right fragrances to encourage those ‘light bulb’ moments.
To dig your mind out of a tired fog, add 2 drops of ginger oil to a teaspoon of carrier oil and massage at the temples. An alternative is to add the oil onto a piece of tissue and take a whiff!
3. Rosemary Essential Oil (Rosmarinus officinalis)
I’d like to consider rosemary as the oil of knowledge and intellect. It’s essence radiates and stimulates one’s mental faculty to learn. Rosemary evokes one’s ability to think deeper and beyond the surface. She’s especially useful during hangovers as she helps you deal with confusion, lack of focus and disorientation. With hangovers, you lack good judgement and sense, rosemary brings back those cards to the table.
A study of the beauty of rosemary when whiffed brought to the fore it’s positive impact on one’s cognition and state of mind. This scented extract in a bottle is understanding and aims to lavish its users with focus and stability of mind. Rosemary excites one’s nervous system and encourages circulation to the brain, which later aids in memory retention and alertness.
If there’s one thing to remember about rosemary during your hangover bouts, it is this: You’ll think less nonsense and feel mentally elevated with a single inhale. Simply add 2 drops to your diffuser and let it do what it does best – elevate your mind for bigger and better things.
4. Lemongrass Essential Oil (Cymbopogon citratus)
Lemongrass is another prized possession in many homes. But, this post isn’t to talk about its awesomeness as an herb; it’s to explore its effectiveness in dealing with hangover headaches as an extract. Most hangover headaches feel like a surgeon has cracked open your skull to examine its nook and cranny.
Getting sufficient rest isn’t a remedy to these nasty headaches when they hit. But, lemongrass essential oil just might be. This beautiful cleansing oil is able to relieve tensions in the head, allowing you to focus more.
A clinical observation conducted with rats revealed the potency of lemongrass as an analgesic. This finding is promising, as many people already use the herb traditionally to tranquilize or ‘sedate’ their headaches. Instead of reclining flat out on your back because of a throbbing headache, use lemongrass to jump start your engines. Add 2 drops to a tablespoon of base oil and massage at the temples.
5. Violet Leaf Absolute (Viola odorata)
Violet is known as the fragrance that ‘strengthens and comforts’ the heart. Although her aroma hinges on the floral side, she’s strong and firm. She’s more than meets the eyes. Her grounding properties makes her an ideal remedy for dizzy spells or dizziness.
A hangover can leave your head wonky and giddy. Violet absolute brings you back to earth and plant you firm. There’s no need to feel as if the world is spiraling out of control.
It’s often advised to avoid using floral extracts when dealing with hangovers, but violet absolute is an exception. She’s elegant, gentle, and calming. When your dizzy spells increase and are too much to handle, violet’s strong, yet delicate arms will hold you down.
Hangovers also rob you of precious sleep. A study conducted using violet to treat insomnia showed positive findings. Fifty patients with chronic insomnia was observed for a month. These patients had violet administered prior to sleeping. The conclusion of this observation also revealed that violet may reduce cases of irritability and mood disturbances associated with hangovers.
6. Fennel Essential Oil (Foeniculum vulgare)
This extract has a long history as a cleansing oil. Whenever hangovers are encountered, the impulse is to increase your fluid intake to help flush the system. Fennel has a similar impact when administered.
When used as a massage oil, fennel can help increase the level at which water is expelled from the body as urine. To use, combine 3 drops of fennel in a teaspoon of carrier oil and massage at the abdomen.
Essential Oil for Hangover Recipes
The combination of essential oils within these blends play on your emotions and cognition to help relieve common hangover symptoms. They are powerful and will enhance your mental well-being.
Mental Booster Blend
This blend supports your thinking ability. If your hangover has left you confused and overwhelmed, unable to use critical thinking to solve problems, this blend helps. It also helps to boost your focus and concentration.
A hangover will leave in its wake poor grades, even absenteeism from classes or work. With this blend, you can pump life into your mental engines and get more done. To get started on your mental booster mixture,
Combine:
- 4 drops of peppermint
- 2 drops of cedarwood
- 2 drops of rosemary
- 1 drop of lemongrass
Add the essential oil mixture into your diffuser, oil burner, or vaporiser.
Allow the blend to scent your room and oust your mental confusion, while you’re infused with energy.
“Begone Nausea And Vomiting” Blend
You’re probably aware of the stomach boosting effects of ginger. It’s a classic. When your stomach feels queasy and nausea sets in, this “Begone Nausea and Vomiting” blend will come to your aid.
Combine:
- 6 drops of ginger
- 2 drops of Roman chamomile
- 2 drops of peppermint
- 2 tablespoons of base oil.
Add to a euro-dropper and put away safely until you’re ready to use.
When you feel queasy or nauseous, add 2 drops of the blend from the euro-dropper in your palm.
Massage the blend at the abdomen in a clockwise motion. Not only will this uplift your mood, but it’ll help ward off nausea and vomiting.
Bonus: The ginger herb can be used to make a cup of tea to relax the stomach, ease nauseous feelings and prevent vomiting.
To Summarize
- You’re prone to hangovers if you’re a heavy alcohol consumer or you’re accustomed to drinking on an empty stomach.
- Symptoms of a hangover may include nausea, tiredness, insomnia, headaches, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, inability to concentrate, and others. Hangovers seem harmless, but they aren’t. They contribute to poor performance at home, work, and at school. You’ll likely experience problems with concentration, lack the ability to remember things, and lack of dexterity.
- Essential oils are ideal for hangovers because they regulate your emotions, improve alertness, and infuse your body with energy.
Read more
- Most Powerful Essential Oils For Headaches & Migraines (By Type + Recipes)
- Ingesting Essential Oils – Is It Safe?
