For allergies also consider a mixture of essential oils: lavender, lemon, and peppermint. Two drops each in a diffuser, or on the back of the neck. I recommend only Young Living oils. They are pure and carefully curated from “Seed to Seal” as they say. They own most of their own farms and grow only on soil that has been pesticide free for many years. They say their lavender fields are hand-weeded, so that they don’t need to apply any chemicals.
I don’t have any experience with essential oils, or diffusers, but may look into it. I did notice the graph of topics on lj’s profile, and didn’t know you had made it, AZL! Very helpful!
I got the pippali powder late yesterday (good ol’ Amazon Prime, love ‘em or hate ‘em) and put some into my evening herb tea. And I had a pretty good night, considering everything. I like the rather exotic flavor it adds, and will try adding it also when I make fresh vegetable juice later today.
My main, and most annoying, allergy symptom is post-nasal drip, which maddeningly usually begins in the late night when I want to go to sleep, and is mostly absent, for whatever reason, during the daytime. The nasal portion of my sinuses remains clear, too, for the most part, until I get up in the morning and usually sneeze more than a few times. The absolute worst is when the phlegm thickens during the night, feeling like rubberbands at the back of my throat, impossible to either hack up or swallow (ick), and making breathing shallow, tight and difficult. Normally I take a Yogi Breathe Deep teabag before bed, and add honey as well as drops of various herbal extracts (licorice, ginger, cayenne) for extra measure. Hopefully adding the pippali powder will help even more.
I have a neti pot, but haven’t used it in quite a long while, because I don’t know it would even be of help in this situation (not to mention that I nearly drowned myself once, trying to use it over the sink - too high up! yikes!)