One of my favorite results to come out of the Sleep Experiment so far is quick and easy, completely free, and doesn’t require specialty ingredients.

What is this wonder remedy?  Lighting.

In great-grandma’s day, we woke up with the sunrise.  We went to bed when it got dark.  In the summer, we stayed awake later (to work in the garden!), in the winter, we sat around the fire and went to bed early.

Daily cycles like these were the norm for thousands of years.  And then we invented electricity.  And suddenly bright lights, computer screens, laptops, iPads, blackberries, and televisions made our body completely confused.

Now, I love technology as much as (or probably more than) the next girl.  But it can get a bit out of control.  When the last thing I do at night is check my email on my iPhone (oh, and check the progress on a few of my game apps), I know it has gone too far.

Because even if I’m relaxed after my warm lavender bath and chamomile tea – when I just do one last check of my email, we all know what happens.  75% of the time that one last little peek at email uncovers a crisis at work, or warrants just a quick reply, and suddenly your brain is back in overdrive again, making your to-do list for the next day.  Not the best mental state to fall asleep!

So the initial, overwhelmingly positive, results from the sleep study show that adjusting your lighting and screen time has a HUGE impact on your quality of sleep.  Curious to try it yourself?  Read on.

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Better sleep without medication!

That’s something a lot of us could use this time of year.  Or any time of year, really.

You know the feeling – laying awake in bed, willing yourself to fall asleep … then glancing at the clock and getting that panicky feeling “well if I fall asleep now I can get a good 5 hours…”, then 4 hours, then… Followed by the painful next day trying to be alert when you’re really exhausted!

I hear this complaint from so many people.  SO MANY.  If you don’t struggle with sleep, consider yourself very lucky.  At least in my 30′ish female demographic, sleep troubles are rampant.  (Although unfortunately I can’t help you if the cause of your sleep deficit is a small child… that is another blog altogether!)

Here at Vintage Savoir Faire we like to be healthy and balanced.  And we like low-cost, handmade solutions that really work.  So when faced with repeated questions about home remedies for better sleep – I took action and started The Sleep Experiment.  This 2 week experiment lets you test remedies at home and report back the results which I’ll share here.  These are just preliminary results – so if you have trouble sleeping some nights, sign up today!

And now onto the results.  Remember, the sleep experiment isn’t scientific, it’s just interested readers testing remedies and sharing their experiences.  So if you’re feeling curious about a remedy, give it a try yourself (and then report back the results to us!)

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Have trouble sleeping?  Wake up a lot during the night?  Don’t feel rested in the morning?  Join The Sleep Experiment here.

For two weeks, your fellow readers are going to test some simple kitchen remedies for better sleep.  Then they’ll report back the results and I’ll share them here on the blog!

Want to try it?  YOU choose the remedy that you want to try.  Try it in your own home for a week, and report back the results.  Then choose a different remedy for the second week.  That’s it.  Easy!

Click here now to sign up and get all of the instructions on how to participate!

I had an awful night of insomnia last week.  The worst ever.  Probably due to my giving up caffeine for several weeks, and then succumbing to delicious espresso in Italy last week.  Ok, not just one espresso… four of them.  (But they tasted so good!)  I was up all night staring at the ceiling, willing myself to go to sleep, with no luck.  I was not a pretty sight the next day.

Luckily I rarely have problems sleeping.  But after an informal poll of my friends, I found that getting enough sleep, and getting good quality sleep, is something a lot of women struggle with!

We’d all like to get a good night’s sleep without taking medication and without feeling groggy in the morning.  I think this is possible through simple home remedies and lifestyle changes – but which ones work the best?   I’m launching The Sleep Experiment to find out!

Click here to join the sleep experiment!

Let’s start with a fun exercise: Quick! List 3 things you could do to improve your health.

Ok.  Did your list include things like: eat more vegetables, eat less food, exercise, stop being stressed out, sleep more, take my vitamins?

Those are on my list too.  They’re probably on ALL of our lists.  See, we all know what we should do, but the tricky part is actually making the changes to DO those things.

So.  Back to the stress thing.

We all know that continual stress is bad for our health.  There are so many articles all over the internet about that.  Including this one just recently which emphasizes all the bad stuff about stress (that we already know, thank you!) and then offers the sage advice to find work-life balance, and avoid stressful situations.

Hmmm.

Those aren’t exactly the practical tips we had hoped for.  Why is it that so much “how to reduce stress” advice requires major life changes?  ”Quit your City job and move into a country cottage, while meditating 2 hours a day and becoming vegan!”

Since this is Vintage Savoir Faire, I’m all about finding time-tested solutions to modern problems.

So here are my favorite ways to reduce stress, without changing your life.

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Our perception of health is broken. And we need to fix it immediately.

I recently read Crunchy Betty’s post about her bad experience in a hospital, and it pushed me over the edge.  I was going to hold out until next year to talk about this topic (when I have some great classes planned) – but I just can’t.  These issues are too important!

Something is seriously broken in our healthcare systems, but also, in the general public’s perception of “how to be healthy.”  I’m not a doctor.  Or a nutritionist.  I’ve just learned through experience that what I eat makes a HUGE difference into how I feel, my immune system, my energy level, and my happiness.

I can sum up my health philosophy like this:

1. Our bodies WANT to be healthy.  Health is our natural state.  Our bodies tend towards health when they are given the right foods & conditions.  Our bodies know how to heal themselves, we just need to give them the right environment.
2. Food IS medicine.  What we eat is absorbed into our bodies and provides energy and nutrition to keep us alive and functioning at peak.  I am constantly saddened that people eat such poor diets – full of processed, “fake” foods, drink lots of diet soda (if it doesn’t have calories, it must be healthy, right?), need coffee, sugar, caffeine and alcohol to get through the day and then expect to have perfect health because they take vitamin pills.  Really?  Calories and fat are not what we need to worry about – high quality, nutritious, balanced foods are what feeds our body and keeps us healthy.  I’m thrilled to see this concept is becoming more mainstream now – there’s even a TV show called The Food Hospital here in the UK about it!
3. But it’s not just about the food.  Food is a key element of health.  But we can’t be happy and healthy eating a perfect diet if we’re in a bad relationship, working 80 hours per week at a job that’s boring, never see our friends and are not sleeping well because of stress.  A good diet is only one part of health.  We need to take a holistic view and get everything into alignment.  We all know that life is more than a job or checking off each item on the to-do list.  But making the necessary changes is tough.  We need some balance, and that includes relationships, career, hobbies/creative pursuits, exercise and spirituality.

You might have noticed that I’m a little bit crazy about using herbs for health.

Especially normal, everyday herbs and plants.  Herbs and plants that probably grow where you live.  Plants that your great-grandma would have recognized and used in the days before corner pharmacies.

Have you ever had a cup of chamomile tea to relax?  Or peppermint tea to soothe your stomach?  That’s the kind of herbal medicine I’m talking about.  Gentle, safe, effective, non-scary and simple.

There are lots of common herbs and plants that we can use to support our health and treat minor ailments.  And you don’t have to study for years to use them.  It’s as simple as keeping a few containers of herbs on hand, and making tea.

So let’s channel our inner wise-women and put together a basic kitchen apothecary of versatile herbal remedies!

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And it’s autumn.  It’s chilly and dry.  I can feel winter right around the corner, even through these last lingering days of sunshine.

During these ‘transition’ seasons of spring and fall, I think more about self care.  Especially this time of year, when I know the stress and busyness of the winter holidays is right around the corner, along with shorter, darker days, cold temperatures and lots of cold and flu germs.

So rather than stumbling into winter unprepared, this year I decided to spend a little time easing myself into the colder weather.  Here are five of my favorite tips.

5 Simple Self-Care Tips for Autumn

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Are you curious about making home remedies but a little nervous about actually using one?   Here’s a simple home remedy for children’s coughs & colds.  All you need is an onion, and granulated sugar.  Et voila! Overnight it turns into onion cough syrup.

I learned about this remedy in my herbal medicine class.  It’s a classic children’s remedy for coughs which has been used for generations…but which I can’t find much about in books or on the internet!

Whenever I meet an older person I always ask them “What did your mother do when you were sick?  What kind of foods did she make?”   Unfortunately, more often than not, nothing comes to mind.  Soon after learning about this cough syrup recipe, we mentioned it to my grandmother.  Suddenly, you could see a memory flooding back.  She had clear memories of her own mother making and using this syrup on her when she was a child.

Brilliant moments of vintage wisdom like this always make me think of how many wonderful remedies, skills & tips that we’ve lost as a society.  Some remedies which would still be really effective (and inexpensive, healthy, simple to make and easy on the environment.)

Reminders like this just strengthen my resolve to learn (and teach!) as much as I can about good food, home remedies and making stuff ourselves!!

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Ooooh a tincture.  Stay with me here – don’t freak out and click away.

Yes, I know tincture sounds like a scary word.  It seems to come from the same medical era as bloodletting and leeches.  But trust me on this one.  Echinacea tincture just might change your life this winter.

So since you’re freaking out, let’s talk about the benefits right up front.  WHY would you want to do this project?

Because echinacea is traditionally used as a cold and flu herb, and through stimulating the immune system, it decreases the chance of coming down with a cold.

It’s one of my favorite winter remedies along with elderberry cordial and hot honey, lemon & ginger.

I also love this project because it’s super easy AND saves you money.  Here in the UK, you can buy a teensy bottle of echinacea tincture for about £10 (that’s about $15 US).  Or you could make a massive amount of your own echinacea tincture for a fraction of the cost.

Plus, making a tincture just sounds so… vintage.

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