I love this natural sleep tincture recipe, made from some of my favorite herbs. It is a mildly and naturally relaxing and calming tincture that is great for sleep disturbances. We don’t have to use it often, but when one of the kids is sick, or we are traveling and their schedules are crazy, this natural tincture helps them sleep peacefully.
And it doesn’t work just for kids … adults who struggle with insomnia or anxiety can benefit from a sleep tincture too.
What Is a Sleep Tincture?
A tincture simply takes the proven health benefits of herbs and concentrates them in liquid form.
If you’ve tried any kind of “sleepy time tea” and found relaxing, sleep-promoting benefits, a tincture can work even better. Tincture recipes usually use some kind of extraction method to release all the benefits of the herbs, and then add a natural preservative like alcohol or glycerin to further extract and make the tincture shelf-stable for a long time to come.
Because tinctures are powerful, last so long, and are so easy and inexpensive to make (if you have an herb garden, you already have a lot of the ingredients!), I rely on tinctures for complaints like tummy troubles, colic or teething, sore throats, or even as a multivitamin. I even have one I like to use for postpartum healing.
Are Tinctures Safe?
Tinctures have been used in herbal medicines since ancient times.
There are as many uses for tinctures as there are herbs, but make sure to research carefully before creating a new concoction. Just because something comes from nature doesn’t mean it is safe to concentrate and ingest! Quite the opposite sometimes, actually.
Sleep Tincture Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 TBSP dried yarrow flowers (relaxing and nutrient packed)
- 2 TBSP dried catnip (naturally calming)
- 2 TBSP dried oatstraw (also helps with bed wetting)
- 2 TBSP chamomile flowers (calming and relaxing)
- 1 TBSP dried mint leaves
- 1 TBSP dried hops flowers
- 1 TBSP dried stevia leaf
- boiling water (if using dried herbs, not if using fresh)
- 2 cups 80-proof or stronger vodka or rum
- glass quart-size canning jar with airtight lid
Instructions
- Put all herbs in clean glass jar. (Tinted, or keep away from sunlight.)
- Pour boiling water to just cover the herbs and mix well. Steep for 5 minutes.
- Fill the jar the rest of the way with vodka or rum alcohol. (NOTE: Not rubbing alcohol!)
- Cap with airtight lid and leave in cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks and up to 8, shaking daily.
- After the desired steeping time, strain the herbs out using muslin or cheesecloth and store in small tincture bottles for use as needed. (I use 2 ounce bottles and the droppers that come with them.)
- Normal daily dose is 2-3 droppers full for adults and 1 dropper full for kids over two.
Notes
- Always ask a doctor before using any herbs, especially on children, if pregnant, or if you have a medical condition.
- If avoiding alcohol for health or personal reasons, there are options. Try making a tincture made with vegetable glycerin instead. (It will not be as potent or long-lasting, but it works!)
- If alcohol is only a mild concern, try adding the tincture dose to a hot cup for tea and wait 10 minutes or so for some alcohol to evaporate.
Where to Get Ingredients
I order all the ingredients that I don’t grow in my garden online, but you may be able to find some of these locally. Start with a very small dose, especially in children, as it typically works very well, even at low doses.
If You Don’t DIY
Steeping herbs isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (pun intended), so I also keep the homeopathic sleep tablets for kids from this brand on hand for the occasional restless or anxious night. I love that they are independently tested for safety and purity (no toxins, artificial flavors or fillers, or GMO-derived ingredients), and they do seem to help my kids drift off to sleep.
Ever have trouble sleeping? What’s your remedy?
Why The New MyPlate Recommendations Won’t be on My Plate
#3. Fill the jar the rest of the way with alcohol (don’t use rubbing or grain alcohol!) Okay, most of today’s hooch is ethanol, or grain alcohol. So for clarity, are you saying not to use whiskey and isopropol alcohol?
Haha… thanks for the clarification. Yes, definitely no isopropyl alcohol and vodka is preferable to whiskey…
WARNING: Sciency answer… but may be of interest if you’re curious and frugal. Go to the bottom if you don’t care about the science/process.
Typically when people say “grain alcohol”, they’re referring to “pure grain alcohol” (e.g., “PGA” or brand name Everclear). For tinctures, there isn’t any difference between vodka and PGA other than the amount you use. Vodka is made by making “pure” alcohol (~95% by volume after triple distillation, limited to 95.6%ABV no matter how many times its distilled due to the chemistry of ethanol/water solution) and then diluting it back down to 40%ABV (80 proof) by adding water. PGA is just undiluted vodka with a sugar source that is from a grain (barley, wheat, rye, etc).
Whiskey/bourbon, rum, tequila are also all the same from a tincture perspective (the alcohol is the key because it draws out chemicals that water doesn’t). The flavor will be different and it doesn’t make economic sense to use something that was aged in a barrel (which you pay for) when you could use something cheaper for the same (better flavor) effect.
Some folks will shy away from “PGA” because it’s made with grains that have gluten. No worries here either. Gluten is not volatile (won’t boil) at distillation temperatures and cannot physically go up the column into the distillate. So even PGA/vodka made from superglutenized wheat with a gluten kicker in the beer/mash will have 0 gluten. Gluten issues with PGA/vodka are psychosomatic.
BOTTOM LINE: To use PGA instead of vodka, you have to do some simple math. For this recipe with 2 cups of 80 proof (40%ABV) vodka, you have 0.8 cups of actual ethanol (2 * 0.4 = 0.8 cups ethanol). If you substituted 190 proof PGA (95%ABV), you would need ~5/6 of a cup of PGA:
0.8 cups ethanol = 0.95 * x
x = 0.8/0.95 = 0.842 which is a hint more than 0.833 or 5/6 cups
In my kitchen, that’s going to be rounded to a cup and I’ll just pour a little lighter. To end with the same concentration, you make up the another cup with plain water. The MONEY SAVING point is that Everclear is almost the same price per 750ml bottle as any decent vodka (~$20 or $100/gallon). So use Everclear and dilute it down with your tap water that you pay $0.002/gallon. For this recipe, the difference is more than $50/gallon, which adds up if you make a lot of tinctures. The alcohol is what is making the tincture anyway, so you could just skip the water altogether and half the dosage (since the same amount of alcohol-soluble active chemicals will dilute into approximately half the volume of Everclear as water). Try both ways… there may be some water-soluble components to this particular recipe that are important for the effect.
Here’s the math: 2 cups * 40% alcohol (e.g. 80 proof) = 0.8 cups alcohol = 5/6 cup * 95% alcohol
For those who don’t want to use alcohol you can use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar (apple cider is my preference) instead of the vodka. When I give tinctures to my son I usually mix it in a little juice or in water so that it dilutes the strong taste.
Where do you get all the ingredients?
From here: https://wellnessmama.com/go/mountain-rose-herbs/
I would love to try this for my 8 year old daughter who is very restless & has a lot of trouble falling asleep…but she is also very picky, so I am wondering how this would taste? Does it have an alcohol taste to it? I was also thinking of chamomile tincture.
most tinctures, after you drop them into a little water, wont really taste like anything. just be siure to put it in something or it will be rough!
Not to be cheeky but I’m suffering from insomnia now. In 2-8 I may as well be SOL. lol
We love to make loose leaf tea with camomile to help with sleep, works great and my son loves it!
Tinctures are relatively easy to make and this is a good one. Great recipe.
you would use glycerin 1 for 1 to replace vodka.
If you wanted to use vegetable glycerin to make this tincture, how would you adjust the recipe?
i don’t remember if i have asked you before, but i’m guessing that using the alcohol is a must for the tincture…. does the alcohol remain in the product or is it considered “alcoholic”? i want to try this so bad!!!
It does contain the alcohol while it is in containers, though if
alcohol is an issue, just put the amount of the tincture you are
planning to take in water and leave on the counter for an hour or
so… the alcohol will evaporate first, and it will just be a strong,
water based tincture at that point.
If I use vegetable glycerin can I use this for my one year old? Like a small dose of a few drops?
Glycerin can be used in place of alcohol in any recipe, but it will have a much shorter shelf life (Ive been told within a few months at best). Using vodka, it is said – will have an indefinite shelf life.