Homeopathy for Insomnia

This blog post will lay out 15 of the most common remedies in homeopathy for insomnia that can help you get to sleep easier, sleep more soundly and wake up well rested.

This post is for general informational and educational purposes only. See my full disclaimer here. In the event of an emergency or if you are concerned about your health or the health of the person you are caring for, always seek the help of a medical doctor, call your local health link, or head to the emergency room. 

Is there anything worse than wanting to fall sleep, but you can’t? I know the answer is yes, there are definitely worse things in the world – but when you’re in the moment of not being able to fall sleep it really feels like the worst thing! Especially if you have a partner who is sawing logs beside you. Talk about frustrating.

What keeps you up at night?

• Anxiousness?
• Stress?
• Worry?
• Your never ending to-do list?
• Shift work?

I could go on, but those are some of the most common causes of insomnia.

There is a lot of information out there on sleep. What you should do, what you shouldn’t do; supplements that you should take, foods to avoid.

A naturopath is a great resource to turn to for herb and supplement recommendations for sleep. Herbs and supplements can have side effects and be contraindicated in some people, so it’s important to have a trained professional on your side (I’m looking at you, melatonin!).

Bedtime rituals that I can get behind: 

• A calming bedtime routine with no screens
• A bubble bath with epsom salts
• A hot tea
• Reading, meditation, deep breathing techniques, a relaxing yoga sesh … whatever floats your boat

Create a sleep-inducing environment! Try:

• Blackout blinds
• A noise machine or fan
• A weighted blanket
• Turn off your homes WIFI at night (you can buy timers that do this manually), and if you can’t do this- at least put your phone and any devices in your room on airplane mode or turn off

What about small children?

Kids are tricky! If your child is not old enough to verbalize what’s going on and keeping them awake, you do not want to just start randomly trying the remedies below. 

I recommend finding a baby or toddler sleep consultant (I can recommend some great ones if you need to find one!) to ensure that you have a solid routine down that is sleep inducing and that sleep/awake times are well spaced. 

You may be able to find a remedy match to your baby or child’s sleeplessness based on their behaviour at night or sleeping patterns. If you cannot, I will include some combination remedies at the end of this post.

Now onto Homeopathy

When I can’t sleep, I grab one of the homeopathic remedies below and I’m zonked out soon after.

Choose a remedy which fits you most thoroughly

You may look through the remedy list and see points from many different remedies which fit your specific symptoms of insomnia. You need to choose the single remedy where most of your symptoms match. All of the points I have listed do not need to be true to you, but most of them should be! If you need a refresher on how to choose a remedy, or how to dose a remedy, please visit this post.

I would recommend choosing a first choice, and maybe 2 backups incase the first does not end up being the correct remedy for you (but keep for another time, as you’re learning remedies have many uses!).

If insomnia is a chronic (long lasting) problem for you, I would advise to make an appointment with a (reputable) classical homeopath to get to the root of your problem. If you need help tracking down a Homeopath in your area, I’d be happy to help – just send me a message.

The following remedies will suit you well when sleeplessness occasionally rears it’s ugly head.

15 COMMON HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR INSOMNIA 

in children + adults!

Aconitum Napellus

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You have insomnia from feeling panicked
• You have sleeplessness (usually after midnight) with restlessness; lots of tossing and turning
• You can’t sleep due to anxiety, or because you are afraid
• Fear and agitation may wake you up when you’re drifting off to sleep
• When you do sleep, it is so light that in the morning you think you didn’t sleep at all
• This is a common remedy for insomnia in the elderly

This remedy is made from the plant Monkshood.

Arnica montana

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You feel restless and sleepless from being overtired
• You are often awake until 2-3am from heat, restlessness and a constant desire to change position
• You are experiencing pain with sleeplessness from muscle overexertion 
• Very horrific dreams awaken you at night, and then leave you unable to fall back asleep

This remedy is made from the plant Leopard’s bane.

Arsenicum Album

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You are anxious and fearful
• You usually can’t fall asleep until after 3 am
• Your sleep is anxious and restless, with a lot of wakings (and then trouble falling back asleep)
• You cannot sleep until you feel everything is in place
• You are so exhausted, yet feel mentally and physically restless
• You seem to feel more tired after you’ve got some sleep

This remedy is made from the mineral arsenic trioxide (learn about how homeopathic remedies are made here).

Chamomilla

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You feel drowsy, but you cannot sleep
• You are sleepy during the day, but you can’t sleep when you lay down
• You usually don’t fall asleep until after 2 am
• You have difficulty falling and staying asleep due to extreme irritability or pain (thinking very irritable, sleepless teething babies)
• Lots of tossing and turning while trying to fall asleep

Cocculus indicus

Coffea cruda

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You cannot sleep due to a rush of ideas and ongoing mental activity that you can’t turn off – you feel mentally hyperactive
• You cannot sleep due to excitement for an upcoming event
• You cannot sleep if there is any light or sound in the room.
• When you fall asleep, it’s a very restless sleep. You hear and wake up from every sound.

This remedy is made from coffee. If the feelings you get when you can’t sleep are similar to how you feel when hyped up on caffeine – this is the remedy you need! 

This is the most common remedy for occasional insomnia.

Ignatia

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You have insomnia after an emotional upset (from a death, a breakup, a shock or an argument)
• You sigh or yawn very frequently and find it difficult to relax at night
• Your sleep is very light with lots of jerking and you wake from every sound, even distant ones

This remedy is made from the plant ignatia amara.

Kali Phosphoricum

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You can’t sleep due to worry or thoughts about business
• You can’t sleep during the later part of the night, usually 2-4am
• Pains in your body change position and keep you awake
• You are awoken from a bad dream (children may wake screaming, restless, with fidgeting feet) and have trouble falling back asleep again from constant thoughts and anxieties about the dream, and recent life events

This remedy is made from potash.

Lycopodium

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• A child who sleeps all day and cry all night 
• You cannot sleep because of constant thoughts, usually of worry and lacking one’s own abilities
• You cannot fall asleep until it’s very late; you fall asleep too late and wake too early
• You wake up from hunger
• Insomnia from digestive troubles, especially gas

This remedy is made from the plant clubmoss.

Nux vomica

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• Your anxieties crowd your thoughts; you are worried and irritable
• You are sleepless from a rush of ideas and anxiousness
• You fall asleep long before bedtime, waking up at 3 or 4am only to lie awake for hours with a rush of ideas/thoughts
• You eventually fall into a light sleep, and when it’s time to get up you feel sleepy, weak and tired
• Insomnia may be a side effect of your medical drug

This remedy is made from the seeds of a strychnine tree.

Pulsatilla

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You are unable to fall asleep before midnight, due to your mind being fixed upon a thought or thing
• You can’t fall asleep because of feeling anxious
• Children may resist going to sleep because it separates them from their parents
• You are unable to go to sleep because of a scary movie or book, or anything emotional that happened prior to bedtime
• There is a fear of being alone in the dark (children often end up in their parent’s bed because of this) – light helps
• When you can sleep, it’s very restless with anxious dreams
• Your insomnia is made worse in a warm or stuffy room

This remedy is made from the wildflower Wind flower.

Rhus toxicodendron

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You cannot sleep due to extreme restlessness
• You are in pain from laying down and trying to sleep
• You cannot find a comfortable position, so you toss and turn
• You may get up in the middle of the night and feel stiff, but the more you move around the better you feel

This remedy is made from poison ivy.

Staphisagria

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You are sleepy all day and awake all night
• You go to sleep late from activity of the mind
• You have difficulty falling asleep due to a highly emotional state in which you’re dwelling on a past event – especially if your pride has been hurt (common in situations of abuse, grief and anger)
• A child will wake and call for the mother often

This remedy is made from the plant delphinium staphisagria

Stramonium

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• You cannot sleep in darkness, but immediately sleeps in a lighted room
• This is indicated for children who wake in the night full of terror

This remedy is made from the thorn apple.

Zincum metallicum

This remedy may be useful for you if some of the following is true:

• Falling asleep is prevented by mental activity
• You have nervous insomnia and trouble relaxing
• Your legs and arms are extremely restless and lying still in bed feels impossible
• You frequently wake up from sleep and the nights seem very long

This remedy is made from the mineral zinc.

Recommended Cell salts for insomnia / sleeplessness

Cell salts are 12 homeopathically prepared minerals essential to the body. They help the body to absorb minerals and nutrients from food and supplements. They can help to correct mineral imbalances. Because they are prepared homeopathically, this allows them to more readily and quickly enter the cells. They are to be taken the same way as the homeopathic remedies above – no touching and let dissolve under your tongue (refresh your memory here).

The following cell salts could be taken 1-3 times per day when you are experiencing difficult sleeping; take 2 pills at a time.

Kali Phos 6X

The # 1 cell salt for disturbances of sleep.

Use for sleeplessness: following excitement, from worry, from mental overwork, from grief, from thoughts of work.

Ferrum Phos 6x

Sleeplessness from fever.

Alternate with Kali Phos for insomnia from excitement or worry.

Mag Phos 6X

To relax muscles; to help relieve spasms, cramps or pain preventing sleep.

Calc phos 6X

Sleeplessness due to growing pains in children. Give every 15 minutes or so, until pain is relieved or until they fall asleep. You can alternate with mag phos (above) if desired.

combination remedies for sleeplessness

Combination remedies are just that – a combination of single homeopathic remedies (in very low strength) formulated to help or eliminate a certain complaint, which in this case is trouble sleeping.

Combination remedies are great in a pinch, when you don’t have access to a certain single remedy, or when you can’t figure out which single remedy will help you in a current acute event. They’re popular with beginners as they seem less complicated and confusing. Choosing a single remedies (like the 15 listed above) are always the first option. A combination remedy may not include the remedy that fits your exact symptom picture (how you uniquely experience insomnia), and so in that case the combination may not work for you. Or maybe it does include the remedy that fits your symptoms, but the potency (strength) is very low and thus you aren’t relieved for long. Combinations can work very well, but single remedies will always work better.

Here are some common (kid + adult) homeopathic combination remedies for insomnia:

Passiflora by Boiron (adult) : Passiflora composé is a homeopathic medicine for stress, nervousness, restlessness, and insomnia.

Quietude by Boiron (child) : Homeopathic medicine for the relief of mild sleeping disorders (nightmares, night terrors, occasional sleeplessness), irritability and restlessness associated with nervousness in children 6 month to 11 years.

Rest by Hylands (adult) : Relieves occasional sleeplessness and restlessness due to stress

Calm ‘n Restful by Hylands (child) : Relief of occasional sleeplessness, restlessness and irritability in children.

Rescue sleep spray

This is not a combination remedy, but a Bach flower essence – homeopathically prepared flower extracts.

RESCUE SLEEP SPRAY calms your restless mind and puts your sleeplessness to bed. It can help to stop repetitive thoughts, fall asleep naturally and wake refreshed.

This, along with the cell salts could be used alongside any remedy – single or combination that you use. Just space out your dosing (about 20 minutes in between).

Dont’ panic

I know, that’s a BIG list of remedies. Chances are, you’ll discover one that fits your experience of insomnia perfectly, and it will be the sole remedy that you reach to when you can’t sleep. Take me, for example. If I find myself laying in bed unable to fall asleep, my go-to remedy is Coffea. That’s because I react exactly like the description above – my mind races, I think about all. of. the. things. and I become hyper sensitive to any sound and light in the room. 1 – 2 doses and I’m out like a light. I keep a tube of coffea and rescue remedy sleep spray in my bed side table just incase.

If I was struggling with sleeping consistently and needing to take coffea every night, that’s when I would add in the cell salts during the day, in addition to using the remedy at night (if needed).

So, it may seem like a big list now, but once you narrow it down to your usual pattern, the next time it won’t be so daunting.

Wishing you a restful night’s sleep!

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