4 Mood-Boosting Essential Oils to Support Everyday Life Challenges

Life may be hard, from maintaining a hectic job schedule to managing your health and home. Tough days happen, and when they do, you may feel agitated, unfocused, or weary, or you may experience other mental health issues.

Could essential oils, a type of aromatherapy, save the day?

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, aromatic oils are extracted by steaming or pressing plants to extract the chemicals that give off their distinct aromas. These smells have potential therapeutic advantages, including mood stabilisation, when inhaled or administered topically in a carrier oil.

Essential oils can be experienced by putting them to a diffuser, sniffing an aroma stick, combining them with massage oil, or applying a few drops to a cotton ball.

"Essential oils are distilled from various plants, and they all have different [potential] actions," explains Yufang Lin, MD, an integrative medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Lakewood, Ohio.

Some essential oils, according to Dr. Lin, have relaxing effects and help you relax and ease stress, while others stimulate neurostimulation, which boosts energy and improves attention.

In principle, essential oils can alter your mood in the following ways: As you inhale the oil, scent molecules travel through your olfactory system (your nose and nasal passages) and affect the limbic system, also known as the "emotional brain" — the part of the brain involved with behavioural responses such as stress and hormone levels, memory, heart rate regulation, and more, according to the Earl E. Bakken Centre for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota.

Each essential oil is thought to interact with the limbic system differently, resulting in a variety of putative mood-boosting effects.

If you want to incorporate essential oils into your wellness routine, consult with a certified aromatherapy specialist or integrative doctor to ensure you're using them safely. This will help you avoid risks such as photosensitivity (when your skin reacts to sunlight), allergic reactions, and toxicity from ingesting certain oils. Aromatherapists that are qualified have generally obtained training from an aromatherapy school that has been approved by the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA). 

Continue reading to learn more about essential oils and mood.

Lavender Oil Could Aid Sleep

Plant compounds in delicate, sweet, floral-smelling lavender produce calm in some people.

According to Lin, lavender and other relaxing essential oils may aid sleep indirectly by reducing anxiety, which may assist you in falling asleep. A review and meta-analysis published in the December 2019 issue of Phytomedicine connects lavender's anxiety-reducing effects to linalyl acetate and linalool, two important chemicals with calming and sedative characteristics for some people.

Before You Try It One word of caution: Previous research has looked at people who ingested lavender oil to achieve the same results, but Elizabeth Ko, MD, an internal medicine physician and the medical director of the UCLA Health Integrative Medicine Collaborative at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, advises against ingesting essential oils. "When oils are consumed [directly or in capsule form], stomach acids deactivate them, rendering them ineffective," she explains.

According to Shanti Dechen, a trained clinical aromatherapy practitioner and the head of Aroma Apothecary Healing Arts Academy in Crestone, Colorado, some essential oils might irritate the mouth and cause stomach ulcers. Lin instead suggests adding lavender essential oil to a bath or diffuser and inhaling it to gain the potential sleep-enhancing benefits.

More Essential Oils to Try for Sleep Improvement

According to Lin, frankincense and chamomile both contain chemicals that appear to alleviate anxiety and promote sleep.

A study of 60 older persons discovered that those who took chamomile extract capsules had better sleep quality than those who took a placebo. Prior studies also found that chamomile preparations like tea and essential oil aromatherapy have been utilised in traditional medicine to alleviate sleeplessness and produce calm.

While frankincense oil has yet to be examined in humans, a tiny research of sleep-deprived rats published in the Journal of Oleo Science in 2019 discovered that it alleviated stress and counteracted the effects of sleep debt.

Peppermint Oil Could Increase Your Energy

A bright, cheerful smell like peppermin1t may provide a boost, according to Dr. Ko.

Some limited human and animal studies suggests that peppermint oil, with its invigorating, highly minty aroma, may help fight weariness during exercise.

In one study, male college students who took a peppermint essential oil capsule an hour before exercise performed much better on grip, vertical jump, and long jump tests than those who took the pill five minutes before. They also outperformed kids who did not consume peppermint essential oil.

Another study in rats discovered that those exposed to the aroma of an essential oil mixture including peppermint could swim longer before tiring than those exposed to distilled water (the control group).

While scientists aren't sure why peppermint oil works to boost energy, it appears that the aroma activates the parts of the brain responsible for alertness, resulting in faster audio and visual reaction times.

Remember that there has been little research on this, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) does not recognise peppermint oil's effects. If you still want to try peppermint oil for its potential fatigue-fighting properties, you might use a diffuser or fragrance stick to inhale it. Alternatively, apply it to your skin with a carrier oil.

Before You Give It a Shot

While some study participants benefited from taking peppermint essential oil capsules, Lin warns that taking essential oils by mouth can upset the stomach and induce gastritis. "Oral ingestion should be directed by a trained herbalist," she advises.

Additional Essential Oils to Try for Increased Energy

Lin's other go-to essential oils for exhaustion include cinnamon, clove, jasmine, and patchouli, which she recommends based on her personal and clinical experience. Although research on these is limited, the essential oil blend that reduced exercise-induced weariness in the rat study cited above also contained clove oil.

Anxiety May Be Relieved by Lemon Oil

Lemon essential oil's fresh, zesty aroma may lift your spirits and calm your nerves.

Previous research indicated that lemon essential oil considerably increased mood more than lavender oil or water (the control items). It may also enhance norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with decreased anxiety and despair.

Meanwhile, another tiny study indicated that patients who smelt lemon essential oil for 30 minutes before orthopaedic surgery were much less anxious than the control group.

Lemon oil may operate by increasing the production of dopamine (a feel-good chemical in the brain), according to a review published in the journal Antioxidants in October 2022. Although the processes are unknown, a mouse study published in the 2019 issue of Agricultural and Food Chemistry discovered that limonene, a prominent component in citrus oils, may have antidepressant properties.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, you can diffuse lemon oil into the air or apply it topically to your skin with a carrier oil.

Before You Try It Be aware that when applied to the skin, lemon oil and other citrus oils react with ultraviolet radiation and can induce photosensitivity. "You can get sunburnt very quickly," Lin warns. When using it directly to the skin, proceed with caution and only after consulting your integrative practitioner or aromatherapist.

According to the American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS), if you put lemon oil on your skin, you should wait at least 12 hours before exposing it to direct sunlight. 

More Essential Oils to Try for Mood Enhancement

Other citrus oils, such as orange and bergamot, may also have uplifting properties, according to Ko's personal and clinical experience. Although research is limited, one study discovered that postpartum women who inhaled bergamot essential oil received some relief from depression symptoms.

Rosemary oil may aid concentration.

Choose rosemary with a piney, woodsy aroma. "Rosemary has really strong antioxidant properties, and it [can be] great for stimulating mental clarity and focus," explains Lin.

In a previous study, participants who inhaled rosemary essential oil for longer periods outperformed those who sniffed it for shorter periods on visual processing tasks and serial subtraction tests.

Another small study discovered that when rosemary essential oil was spritzed into the air in the testing room, pupils remembered visuals and numbers better than the control group

When inhaled, rosemary essential oil contains 1,8-cineole, a molecule that may enhance learning by inhibiting the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter. Acetylcholine is essential for learning, memory, and attention.

Lin recommends inhaling rosemary oil or applying it topically with a carrier oil such as jojoba or coconut oil.