Sleep Cream - Why it Needs to Be More Than Just Magnesium

Being on the same latitude as Nunavik Island in Alaska, Kamchatka Peninsula Russia and Helsinger in Norway, in summer, midnight in Harris is still light and bright even without a full moon. From early May, I can walk late in the evening without a torch to guide me and when the moon is full, the light is amazingly bright and the landscape luminous.

The downside of this is sleep. Living in a place where the summer is endlessly light and the winter the opposite, plays havoc with the cues usually associated with eating and sleep. In summer noticing that it's time to cook dinner is associated with a glance at a watch rather than the familiar drawing in of the evening light. Going to bed when it's still light outside is a real challenge, it's reminiscent of those times as a child when sleep was elusive because at 7pm it was still light enough to play outside. Blackout blinds help once in bed, but it is the rhythm of the evening wind down that alters, the hormone release prompted by shifting light levels is affected. Also night time waking is light, even at 3am, so getting back to sleep once disturbed is nigh on impossible.

So I needed a sleep solution for myself, a ritual to prepare myself for sleep when everything around me prompted the days to extend late into the early hours and beyond. For those times when under a bright sky nothing would switch off my ever active brain and when woken, sleep was utterly elusive.

Being creative is a gift and a curse, it allows me to think about an issue in a way that is utterly unique, to bring together disparate strands of ideas into a complete whole, to create combinations of plants and oils, remedies and plant essences that build layer upon layer of support for mind and skin. The downside is that it crowds my head with thoughts when I need it to be still, it can make me anxious and it definitely disturbs my sleep. During the menopausal years this was especially heightened, I rarely slept more than a few hours a night.

Although northerly island living might not be the main sleep issue for most people, I was contacted by increasing numbers of women who were really struggling to sleep, waking unrefreshed, finding their mood and their relationships affected. Lack of sleep affects everything, it makes you ill.

So I turned my mind to sleep products. Virtually every skin based sleep product is a blast of Magnesium - nothing more complex or considered. Some are in butters like Coconut or Shea, some are in tallow which is rendered animal fat, some add beeswax for a high sheer emulsification, some use other emulsifiers. All are one dimensional. All depend on Magnesium alone  or Magnesium plus Lavender oil to do the job. All make huge claims for the effects of Magnesium as a single ingredient, from sleep to anxiety, muscle spasm to menopause, migraines to depression. It seems that it can cure all and it does play a crucial role in keeping the body and mind balanced but it's not the whole picture.

Trans-dermal Magnesium is great where there is a Magnesium deficit (and many of us lack it) but used on its own it is a pretty blunt tool because, particularly around sleep, there are so many factors that can affect it beyond a Magnesium deficiency and more than that, the key is not just to get to sleep at night, it's to fall into the cycles of sleep that aid repair to the mind and body.

So I approached it differently because I knew I could draw on the whole range of therapeutic options at my disposal. I wanted to create a ritual that could be used in its entirety or in its separate parts, something that prepared the mind and body for sleep and then delivered a restful night's sleep. I thought about the issues of living here and the need for a series of steps that led me into being ready to sleep.

The Serene Sleep Soak was an obvious first step and then the Ritual Cacao because it gives the body a really good dose, not only Magnesium but also Theobromine to calm the mind and Tryptophan to regulate sleep. Then I topped it up with functional mushrooms to centre and relax and our flowers plus pink pepper, ground almost to a powder, to ease tension and reduce stress. I love it. 

Then I thought about what could be put into a trans-dermal skin product that addressed far more than Magnesium deficiency. It has been a real challenge to make, to get the balance of Magnesium (because it is a good option to include), essential oils to calm and soothe, herbs for sleep, rebalancing flower essences and homeopathic remedies that take in anxiety and sleep function into an exactly right combination without breaking the emulsion. I also questioned whether in the end, a balm is user friendly or indeed the best carrier of the active ingredients.

Balms are wonderful but they are oily, they are perfect for the face and body when formulated well but in a sleep product which is applied primarily to the feet they are a real pain. With the addition of high levels of Magnesium, they leave your hands tacky and when applied to the feet they are too oily so if you need to nip to the loo, you pick up dust on your feet, they can also leave an oily residue on the sheets. The argument is that a butter based balm is slower to absorb into the skin allowing a slower release of the Magnesium.

I thought about this a lot and don't quite follow the logic. If you have a Magnesium deficiency you want a delivery of the Magnesium which is relatively rapid and which is readily absorbed into the skin. If it sits in a layer on top it is slower to absorb and more likely to rub off onto sheets etc. By making a cream, which is oil rich but not greasy, you cover all bases, the product can be easily and pleasurably massaged into the skin, it hydrates as well as moisturises, it offers really good delivery of the active ingredients but is oily enough to allow for a slightly slower release. More than that, it can be applied anywhere on the body where there are aches and pains to help with that too without it feeling sticky. I regularly use it on my back after a long day in the workshop.

I wanted a really effective product, that you would look forward to applying, in exactly the same way as all our products invite the pleasure of using them as well as the wonderful results. I didn't want something sticky. I wanted it to smell beautiful but for each of those essential oils to earn its place in the formulation because they support some aspect of sleep. I wanted Hops and Chamomile in Herb form for their sedative effects and the Homeopathic remedies I've used for decades for muscle cramps, anxiety, sleep support. After months of trying, this is exactly what we have made - a product that supports every aspect of restful, restorative and repairing sleep. It is a complex, multi-dimensional formulation and it feels beautiful on the skin.

So whether you live in London or Alaska, whether it's light all night or not, this is the cream to support sleep and it is truly a world apart from a Magnesium only balm.