8 Health Benefits Of Lavender Essential Oil & Exactly How To Use It

If you're looking to calm both the body and the mind (and let's face it—we could all benefit from a little R&R), look no further than the classic essential oil: lavender oil. While the pretty purple plant itself is a sight to see, its versatile essential oil is where the healing powers are at. From your head to your toes, lavender oil can help you de-stress, decompress, and develop your healthiest routines yet.

The oil is extracted by a steam distillation process, in which the flowers are steamed, the steam is captured, and the oil is separated and collected from the water. You can usually find lavender oil at health food stores, or even drugstores, located near the other essential oils.

Essential oils and aromatherapy have gained quite the reputation for being a go-to in holistic health. Essential oils are the liquid extracts of plants, which can be used to help with everything from stress to sleep, hormone health to home cleaning, and beyond. But each essential oil is unique and offers its own specific benefits. Here's what you need to know about how one of the most popular essential oils, lavender oil, can promote well-being:

Any way you spin it, the foundation of a healthy lifestyle starts and ends with sleep. If you find yourself tossing and turning at night, research suggests that lavender oil may be your saving grace: One study found that several whiffs of lavender oil before bed increased the percentage of deep sleep time2 in healthy men and women. It even has beneficial effects for those who suffer from insomnia—a study found that inhaling lavender oil twice a week for 20 minutes at a time soothed the nervous system and improved sleep quality scores3 for women with insomnia when compared to a lavender-oil-free control group.

The soothing powers of lavender oil don't stop there. In one study, researchers found that lavender oil could go toe-to-toe against a prescription medication4 for general anxiety. For six weeks, one group of participants took the anxiety-reducing medication Lorazepam while another group took an oral dosage of lavender oil. At the end of the trial period, both groups reported an almost identical decrease in anxiety—45% and 46%, respectively. When it came to more extreme conditions, the oil still proved effective: A 2017 study5 found lavender aromatherapy even calmed anxiety levels in preoperative patients.

It can even be used as a natural alternative for healing pesky bug bites—when mixed with a little baking soda and applied to the bites, you'll hardly even notice they're there.

However, it is important to note that this was a preliminary in vitro study, meaning infected cells were combined with lavender oil in a test tube for observation. Do not topically apply lavender oil, or any essential oil for that matter, to your vagina since the pure form is too strong and can burn. These types of studies help inform researchers about the properties and potential uses of substances, but more research is needed to understand how lavender oil can be used on fungal infections in the future.

While the research is still preliminary, one animal study8 showed that applying lavender oil once a day for four weeks to the backs of mice stimulated hair growth on all facets: from follicle number to depth to thickness. Clinical trials in humans are needed, so the jury is still out on this one, but perhaps this is the inspiration you need to add a couple of drops of lavender to your DIY hair mask.

Minor wounds, that is. One animal study found that when applied topically, lavender oil closed up wounds9 more quickly than other solutions, such as saline and iodine over the course of a five-day period. Researchers chalked this phenomenon up to improving the quantity of EGF, or epidermal growth factor, in the skin, which is necessary for regenerating tissue. The catch: Once again, the study was conducted on animal subjects, so more rigorous clinical trials are needed before we start hailing lavender oil as the next Neosporin.

Pounding head? Try a whiff of lavender. A study10 looking at 47 patients who suffered from regular migraines prescribed one-half of the group regular 15-minute lavender-smelling sessions while the other half inhaled a placebo. The effects were immediate and lasting: Researchers found that those in the experimental group reported significantly less severity of migraine attacks for the next two hours.

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Whenever you're purchasing an essential oil, it's important to look out for certain things on the bottle. You can tell an oil is high-quality if it lists both the common and scientific name of the active oil(s) and any carrier oils, has the word "therapeutic" on the label, and comes in a dark glass bottle that keeps light from entering—which can mess with the oil's efficacy. Be sure to check the expiration date, too! It's a relatively affordable essential oil because of the way the lavender plant is extracted, so a low price isn't necessarily a red flag.

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