Aromatherapy solved my sleeping problems
The World Cup hero tells JANE SYMONS how he struggled to stay asleep until he discovered essential oils
FOR many years Jonny Wilkinson and sleep made uncomfortable bedfellows. The intense focus and obsessive drive which made him such a superstar on the rugby field also left him thinking rest was “wasted” time and a sign of weakness.
During the most challenging period of his life, unless he used sleeping tablets, the World Cup winner struggled to drift off for more than two hours at a time.
This is a pattern which not only goes against common sense but also flies in the face of the latest science, which shows poor sleep has a corrosive impact on health and can even be linked to the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“Sleep has always been an interesting one for me,” says Jonny, with the extraordinary knack for understatement the 2003 World Cup hero often showed when downplaying his on-field achievements.
Jonny, 39, who continues to be a force in English rugby, providing coaching advice to the current Six Nations team and expert insights as a TV pundit during their games, has finally overcome his sleep issues by conquering his demons with the help of a centuries-old “alternative” solution.
Insomnia is far from a new experience for Jonny. His sleep problems go back as far as he can remember. “When I was young I was very nervous and anxious about things,” he recalls.
“As a child I needed everything to be perfect so I put a lot of pressure on myself, particularly if I had a big rugby game or a test at school.”
On his bedroom wall there was a Peanuts cartoon of Charlie Brown walking around complaining he was worried because he has nothing to worry about.
And from the age of 10 or 11 the rugby legend used three alarm clocks to be sure he was ready to face the world.
“If I woke at nine o’clock and I had a game at 10am, I would be in a state of panic that I didn’t have enough time to prepare,” he admits.
“So I used to set an alarm for five o’clock in the morning and then another one at six and another at seven. I thought I was taking the edge off the panic.”
As he got older he took another, equally skewed, approach to sleep. “I was going to bed later and later to give myself time to wind down but I couldn’t sleep because I was overtraining and had so many invasive thoughts,” he admits.
“I had conditioned myself into this weird state of mind, it was a kind of intensely functioning panic.” Looking back now, there is a sense of disbelief: “It’s amazing how much you can put sleep off.”
Today he remains curious about the player he might have been if he had given his body – and mind – the time it needed for rest and repair.
“The human body is the most phenomenal machine but I was telling that amazing machine it had to function using about 0.1 per cent of its capability,” he says.
“I used to think about sleep in the same way I thought about going to the physio to get a massage. It would do me some good but never as much as getting out on the field.”
Bizarrely the only time he felt really relaxed was when he was under the greatest pressure.
“Between whistles I felt I was sleeping on my feet – and I mean that in the most positive way. In the middle of a rugby game was the only time I lost that sense of identity and individuality and found a oneness with the game.”
SLEEP continued to be a struggle, particularly on tour. “As a sportsman it was not unheard of to use sleeping tablets,” he says. “If people were struggling with stress, or when we were flying and needed sleep to acclimatise, we used them.”
However the sleep they brought never felt “right”. “It did feel almost like a process, a manufactured version of the real thing,” he says, likening the tablets to an anaesthetic. “You don’t wake up after an anaesthetic thinking, ‘I have had an amazing sleep.’ It’s forced upon you.”
He adds: “With a medicine such as sleeping pills you get that, ‘I’ll take it for one more day’ attitude. You take it the first time and it works. So you take it again. But it’s a movement away from real health.”
When he relocated to France to play for Toulon, Jonny began to question his obsessive mindset and investigate a more natural approach to his health. “I started to look at ways of working with my body, not against it,” he says.
Essential oils, which had been the subject of scientific studies, were used during physiotherapy sessions at the club and Jonny says: “When you walk into any pharmacy in France you will see shelves of essential oils and aromatherapy products.And in the south you see lavender growing everywhere.”
Lavender has long been used as a sleep aid but more recently scientists have discovered it contains a number of compounds, such as linalool, which have calming, anti-anxiety properties.
“I started to explore individual oils, like lavender and rosemary,” says Jonny, who soon moved on to using Puressentiel Rest & Relax, a blend of “true” English lavender, chamomile and other essential oils, which is clinically proven to improve sleep.
He was so impressed that he became a brand ambassador for the firm, which specialises in evidencebased essential oil products.
Trials at a French hospital showed the Puressentiel Rest & Relax air spray improved sleep scores across five different measures, with average sleep time increased by 21 minutes and sleep quality up by 18 per cent.
“Now I realise that sleep is bigger than anything and when you sleep properly it’s amazing,” he says. “You wake up and it’s just a different world.”
Not even becoming a father last summer has changed that. “Looking at children can teach us so many things,” he says. “The first thing they do is sleep – and they do it so beautifully.”