Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Rest for the Weary: Reviews, Coffea Cruda and Bach's Rescue Sleep

Matt and I have both been known to have sleep difficulties in the past, and our recent tumultuous weeks and schedule changes have made getting a good night's sleep especially challenging. Given our recent enthusiasm for homeopathy, we picked up a bottle of coffea cruda (a good example of how homeopathy works: it's basically the minute essence of unroasted coffee, which would act in large quantities as a stimulant but in small quantities should stimulate your body to oppose its effects by becoming sleepy) and decided to also compare it with Bach's Rescue Sleep Remedy, something we'd each heard good things about. I think they set us back a total of less than $20 (which is cheaper and a good bit easier, not to mention more natural, than trying to get a prescription for Ambien in this town!), and should last us quite awhile.

We first tried out a few sprays of Bach's Rescue Sleep. We then watched an episode of the Cosby Show and exchanged foot rubs, during which we each felt progressively sleepier. I would say the predominant features of how I felt after the Rescue Sleep were relaxation, and less uptight about falling asleep than I normally am when I have to work the next morning. We each took a couple more sprays before bed, and I think I ended up falling asleep before Matt, in probably 30-45 minutes, and he ended up doing one more dose before he fell asleep after about an hour. We both slept well through the night.



The coffea cruda made me feel more tired-and-yawning than the Rescue Sleep. I think we each took two doses of that, probably 20minutes apart; and once again, fell asleep not instantaneously, but within an hour, which was more quickly than we had been. We slept well through the night again.

To sum it up, I think both remedies are gentle and relatively effective. They don't knock you on your butt like Ambien, but you don't hallucinate on them either. I think they're a good way to help gently and naturally retrain your body and mind toward better sleep habits, and we plan to continue using them.

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