This Sleep-Inducing Pillow Spray Is Modern Day Fairy Dust

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Despite its detrimental toll on my work week, staying up into the wee hours of the night and swimming in a sea of blue light is one of my favourite activities. The side effects? Puffy eye bags, foggy brain cells, a fear of the generic iPhone alarm, an overarching distaste for being awake — the list goes on. I was complacent in my bad habits, that is, until this award-winning, best-selling, and yawn-inducing Deep Sleep Pillow Spray arrived to set me back on a course to healthy slumber.

Truthfully, this $41 lavender, chamomile, and vetiver elixir did not casually roll into my life (for one thing, it's a rectangular bottle) — This Works, the online hotspot for skincare and wellness solutions, generously sent me a few samples to review and I immediately got to spritzin'. Soothing floral aromas wafted over my pillows and gently caressed my duvet cover, but did I fall asleep? The nozzle on this bottle produced one of the best mists I've ever seen, but did I toss and turn? Yes, it's cruelty-free, vegan, and 99% natural, but was my REM cycle revived? Find out all the breaking snooze news you need to know and more, below.

If you're not familiar, This Works (and its penchant for skincare, wellness, and lowercase letters) started back in 2004. For almost 20 years now, the brand has focused on "resetting bedtime habits and encouraging restful nights with science-based, proven-to-work products” — hence its functional namesake. Long gone are the days of "studies show" comments and ambiguous evidence behind wellness products — This Works proudly acknowledges the years of user trials and independent functional MRI scans led by neuroscientist Professor Gaby Brader that helped perfect the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray's effective medley of natural ingredients.

This Works' pillow spray is not knockout gas, but it is knockout-gas-adjacent. Point blank, its purpose is to help you fall asleep faster. When combined, the spray's three highlighted ingredients (lavender oil, camomile oil, and vetivert oil) are proven to "[activate] specific areas of the brain associated with pleasure and calmness." Therefore, giving your pillow (and your pajamas, if you want that extra sleepy feel) a nice spritz before bed is a one way ticket to sweet dreams.

Before receiving my sample, I took to the customer testimonials — and I mean all the testimonials. On This Works' site, the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray features a 4 out of 5 star rating and 304 reviews; on Dermstore it's wrangled 4.48 out of 5 stars and 120 reviews; and on Google it boats 4.3 out 5 stars and a whopping 5,843 reviews. This Works verified buyer, Ronni M., concurs that the spray is "relaxing" and claims it helped them "sleep more soundly." One Google reviewer is not a fan of lavender nor the smell of the spray, but still admits that "it does kinda work," and is "not like some gimmicky product." Meanwhile, an anonymous Dermstore customer describes their bottle as "pure luxury" and is so enamoured by the fragrance, they "spray [their] entire bed" before tucking in for the night. Our affiliate strategist (and resident insomniac) Kate Spencer also test-drove the brand’s roll-on blend of essential oils last year, and found that it actually helped her fall asleep. Needless to say, I was excited for my package to arrive.

Yes it did. Blame it on placebo effect or my unstoppable imagination, but that gentle floral mist made my satin pillowcases feel like silk, and whispered sweet nothings to my eyelids until I fell into a deep slumber. However, this was not the most controlled experiment nor was it a worthy reflection of the scientific method. I opened the package, held the cute rectangular bottle in my hand, gave my pillows a nice mist, and settled down for bed. An enticing lavender-heavy aroma floated around my face once my head hit the sheets — let's just say that if the whimsical fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream had a signature fragrance, it would be This Works' Deep Sleep Pillow Spray.

Poetics aside, I think the spray, just like all somewhat superfluous beauty products, are what you make of them. I got into that bed excited to fall asleep and eager to smell some lavender on my sheets — so I did just that. However, what shocked me was the fact I looked forward to spritzing my pillows again for night two. Perhaps the true magic of this spray is its ability to keep you regimented. It's been about a week, and I don't use it every night, but dipping my bedding in some soothing lavender elixirs makes bedtime feel special, as opposed to a chore I must do to survive, you know?

This just in: this spritzer is not a necessity, but it is an effective luxurious enhancement to everyday life. You can surely live without it, but living with it is pretty sweet, and I encourage everyone to invest in their REM cycles from here on out. I still dabble in late night TikTok doom-scrolling, but I do notice that I fall asleep with more intention, and stay asleep until the dystopian iPhone alarm goes off at 7 a.m. Bonus: when I misted the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray in front of my fancy-shmancy Dyson air purifier (Princess Dy, to her inner circle) her fan did not waver nor did the air quality meter bat an eyelash — so in This Works' natural ingredients no-BS, science-based wellness products, I trust.