Whidbey Lucid Dreams dream pillow

We created the Whidbey Lucid Dreams herbal dream pillow specifically for the winter 2022-2023 season. It holds plants that were traditionally used to influence dreaming. Our Whidbey Deep Sleep and Whidbey Sweet Dreams sleep pillows are the herbal pillows to try if you aren't sleeping well--not these lucid dreams dream pillows.

Whidbey Lucid Dreams dream pillow ingredients (and their traditional uses): Whidbey- and Seattle-grown,  non-sprayed hops (deep sleep support) and Whidbey-grown lemon balm (support for decreasing stress, reducing anxiety & insomnia support), common mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris, sleep support & vivid, lucid, creative dream support), motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca, support for feeling safe, at home, and like you belong here and are loved as you are), and small pinches of peppermint (lucid dream support) and catnip (support for restful sleep and warding off bad dreams).

General tips for lucid dreaming

There are many practices by lucid dreaming experts online--do your own research if this interests you. I claim no expertise beyond a natural inclination and ability to listen to and lean on plants, herbs, flowers, trees, land, our neighborhoods and communities, other herbalists, and ancestors. This is what works for us:

- Creating relaxing bedtime rituals and stick with them as best you can. Whatever relaxing means to you--herbal tea, reading a book, taking a bath, shutting off screens an hour before bed, using a special nighttime soap or lotion, writing, listening to or playing music, dimming the lights, meditating, praying, yoga, looking at photos of beloved ancestors, talking to trees, watching the sun set, etc. 
- Trying to go to sleep at the same time each night.
- Setting an intention to be more fully present and aware in your dreams. Writing this intention down the first time or two helps us. 
- Trusting and opening to leaning on the plants within the dream pillow and to leaning on all of the ancestors and all of the herbalists around the planet who paid and continuing to pay close attention to what our relationships with plants bring us.
- Keeping a dream journal by the bed and record what we remember. Reading from the journal before bed, now and then, so we can watch for patterns or themes in our dreams.
- Thinking about our dreams and talking to others about our dreams. Avoiding over analyzing on our own. My approach: think a little, talk with others, think a little, talk with others, and so on. Listening at least as much as I think is important. Personally, I talk to trees, flowers, dogs, and people about my dreams.
- Important: Prioritizing getting good sleep first is important. When I was having terrible night sweats going through menopause, lucid dreams were the last thing on my mind. I just needed sleep! So if you have night sweats, a sleep disorder, or are otherwise struggling with getting enough sleep for whatever reason, aspiring to lucid dreaming isn't a good first step. Instead, try an herbal sleep pillow and work with wise local women, and/or a nutritionist, an herbalist, your medical professionals, a sleep specialist, and/or a therapist until you are sleeping well. Once you are sleeping well on a regular basis, that's the best time to try lucid dreaming.

To use the Whidbey Lucid Dreams dream pillow: See the general tips for lucid dreaming above, then:

1. Squeeze the dream pillow and inhale deeply just before you go to sleep on the night you want to have lucid dreams.

2. Set an intention to be more aware and awake in your dreams. For some people, steps 1 & 2 are enough, step 3 isn't needed.

3. Tuck the dream pillow into your pillowcase for the night.

4. Shut your eyes, breathe deeply, and fall asleep.

Most people know within a few tries if the herbal dream pillows work, don't work, or work too well (keeping them too awake) for themselves. It's up to you to decide how often to use them. If it doesn't work for you, gift it to someone else to try or set it aside and try again at a different time in your life. If it does work, consider gifting more dream pillows to others--especially to those you talk to about your dreams.

More about us, these herbal pillows, and you

I am not a medical doctor. My doctorate degree is in education, not medicine, and I study herbalism with local wise women in the Wise Woman and Green Witch and in the Celtic traditions. I'm an herbalist, an essayist and poet, and a mystic--delighted and more-than-content with the mystery here. People have leaned on local plants, flowers, and herbs to help with sleep and influence dreaming for generations. Now it's our generation's turn to remember this and to deepen our relationships with local plants, trees, and flowers.

All dried plants, herbs, flowers, and windfall tree branches in these herbal offerings are grown on Whidbey Island either here at Ritual Mischief, on friends' properties and farms, or ethically wild gathered on Whidbey in the Wise Woman tradition. Gathered by me. Dried by me. Garbled by me. Sometimes family and friends help fill the dream pillows. This year some of my dear friend Tabitha’s hops (grown and skillfully and gently tended in Seattle) also made it into these bags  

Each small (5 inch x 7 inch) cotton zipper bag was made by our neighbors at Feather & Fox here in Langley. The dream pillows are filled with an herbalist-curated (Lori-created) collection of our beloved Whidbey Island dried plants, flowers, herbs, and/or tree leaves/needles. Let go and lean on local plants for a while--even in the heart of chaos--and just see what happens...

All our sleep and dream pillows use only the dried plants themselves, not essential oils or fragrance oils, so they're super gentle. The pillows can be squeezed to reactivate the plant and flower scents, as needed, and they should last for a year or many more, depending on your frequency of use and climate. The bags can also be unzipped to add your own local dried herbs, plants, and flowers, as needed. If there are other plants, herbs, and flowers that you consider or suspect will bring lucid dreams, play around with adding more of your own. If you add plants at any point, make sure they've been grown well away from human-sprayed poisons, dried thoroughly, and do some research, ideally talking to local wise women or herbalists, before tucking different plants in. If I have the dried plants on hand, I will refill these bags for half price for people who come visit my herbal studio in person.

Important: 

- Keep the lucid dreams pillow out of reach of young children and pets. Contents could be a choking hazard and the plants in the dream pillow were formulated for adults, not children. Cats may be attracted to the small pinches of catnip and come for your dream pillow! Puppies will just make a big mess out of them if they get a hold of the pillow--trust us on this one!

- If you're allergic to one or more of the plants in this dream pillow, then this may not be the best product for you. Gift it to someone else and choose another product for yourself. Always stop using a product if your body isn't happy with it! Visit the Medical Disclaimer page for more information.