v a l e r i a n

heavy - aromatic - warming - relaxing

the heady sweat of valerian root is like a heavy and warm cosmic blanket, it pushes down on you and pulls energy from the brain into the feet. 

As it pulls through the body, it pulls more blood into the abdomen and the pelvis, this is where its traditional emmenagogue and carminative actions come from; it encourages delayed menstruation and settles related cramps, it also settles a gripy, crampy stomach because of this downward-bearing, blood-warming action.

but, it isn’t first choice for stomach-settling as it has a heavy, unmistakably sedative effect for the right constitution.

the right constitution type are the most nervous, excited type; the bubbling at the edges, twitching, unsettled, thought-filled, excitable people who think think think on a loop, especially at night time.  there is energy stuck swirling in the mind and creating likewise swirling thoughts.

how does it sedate into sleep? probably by the way it relaxes smooth muscle and decreases blood pressure (hypotensive), mixed with its downward-bearing energy draining away from the brain, but truthfully, its secrets are its own. it’s a root medicine, and has an affinity for pulling down into another realm.

I use it frequently for sleeplessness due to looping thoughts, and am normally sucked into sleep within 20 minute of taking a strong decoction, and in this sleep, i normally experience the most vivid dreams (though not lucid / hanging over you for the following day like wild lettuce, passionflower, or mugwort. ) 

aside from the sedative effects, the smell is the most forward part of valerian - it’s aromatic in an unfriendly way; of sweat, something heady and festering, days old, and mouldy. that’s ok, it’s supposed to smell like that, it’s the valproic acid (a type of butyric acid) in valerian that disperses the smell and sedates. modern pharmaceutical medicine has isolated valproic acid as a treatment for bipolar or mania.

valerian moves blood and is therefore warming. it’s a relaxant nervine and reduces anxiety, hypnotic sedative, hypotensive and antispasmodic, and emmenagogue through relaxation.

i would not use it for people with vivid nightmares as i would assume it would aggravate them - just a hypothesis, not tried myself.