A warm bath isn’t just clean, it’s sleep-inducing, says everyone who loves this alone-time ritual. We’ve ranked the best bath salts for sleep, to help you slumber faster.
The 15 Best Bath Salts for Sleep (and Why Science Says Hot Soaking Knocks You Out)
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But Do Hot Baths Really Help You Fall Asleep?
According to a published review of thousands of sleep studies, yes. Herewith, the deets: The optimum bath regimen to encourage sleep is a bath that’s 104 to 108.5 degrees and lasts at least 10 minutes. And you need to take the plunge one to two hours before bedtime. This hot soak actually helps you fall asleep faster than taking no bath at all, because what actually helps you fall asleep is (major twist)—the body’s cooling mechanism. Because a hot bath raises our core temperature, so when you get out of the bath, your body will cools down and you’re getting sleepy, very sleepy.
What Are Bath Salt Ingredients to Look For?
Since hot water is just the beginning, a fragrant, herbal or otherwise therapeutic bath salt will enhance your bathing experience. Look for soothing herbs like lavender, heady essential oils like rose and moisturizing ingredients including clay. And CBD-infused salts are popular for sedating, but non-psychoactive, chill.
Best Bath Salts for Sleep At A Glance
- Best bath salts for sleep with lavender: Sabon Bath Salt
- Best fragrance bath salts for sleep: Maude Tub Kit
- Best foot bath bath salts for sleep: Spa of Iceland Bath Salt Fjola
- Best giftable set of bath salts for sleep: LIVE BY BEING Bath Salt Spa Gift Set
- Best bath salts for sleep with essential oils: Bios Apothecary Rose Bath Salts
- Best skin-soothing bath salts for sleep: Susanne Kaufmann Alkali Salt
- Best travel-ready bath salts for sleep: Therapy. Bath Salts
- Best muscle recovery bath salts for sleep: Coach Soak: Muscle Recovery Bath Soak
- Best Dead Sea bath salts for sleep: ASUTRA Dead Sea Bath Salts
- Best floral bath salts for sleep: Vertly Soothing Floral Soak Bath Salts
- Best bath salts for sleep with clay: Bathing Culture Big Dipper Mineral Bath
- Best bath salts for sleep with valerian: Goop “The Martini'' Emotional Detox Bath Soak
- Best CBD bath salts for sleep: Lord Jones High CBD Formula Bath Salt
- Best value bath salts for sleep: Kneipp Dream Away Valerian & Hops Mineral Bath Salt Soak
- Best citrus bath salts for sleep: Saint Olio Sedation Soaking Salts
1. Sabon Bath Salt
Best Bath Salts for Sleep with Lavender
Why We Love It:
- Contains magnesium and Dead Sea salts
- Has lavender flowers
Scents of relaxing lavender, heady patchouli and appealing vanilla lace these salts, which come in a pretty glass jar that won't look out of place beside upscale fragrances and skincare products.
2. Maude Tub Kit
Best Fragranced Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Dead sea salts and coconut milk powder are mixable
- Scented with warm amber, cedar leaf and clove
This duo of bath products turns your relaxing bath customizable: You can add as much of the moisturizing coconut milk powder as your skin needs, along with the potassum-rich Dead Sea salts laced with a warming blend including lemongrass, medjool date and tonka bean that make this a luxury bath experience.
3. Spa Of Iceland Bath Salt Fjola
Best Foot Bath for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- 95 percent natural ingredients
- Scented with coconut, amber, musk and vanilla
Sea salt harvested in Iceland is blended with essential oils to make a blend that's so potent, its makers recommend using it as a soothing foot bath as well a bath additive.
Best Giftable Set
Why we love it:
- Three-fragrance set
- Includes clay, Hawaiian lava salt and Himalayan pink salt
This set of handmade, essential oil-laced bath salts has a stress-relieving ylang-ylang blend, a woodsy warm cedarwood blend and one with energizing peppermint and cypress oils that are detoxifying. This is a great gift for anyone you know loves to disappear into their bathroom.
Best Bath Salts for Sleep with Essential Oils
Why We Love It:
- Super mineral-rich
- Mixed with geranium essential oil and centifolia rose petals
Packaged in an attractive glass vintage-look apothecary bottle, this Himalayan salt mix has bathers swimming in a rose petals-scented bath (so it's relaxing) while having their skin softened with circulation-stimulating geranium essential oil.
Best Skin-Soothing Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Formulated for sensitive skin
- Soothing whey powder
Milk baths have since Egyptian times been a pampering ritual, and this bath salt blend uses whey protein for its same soothing power. A light scent is non-irritating, and the ultra-fine crystals easily dissolve under running water.
Best Travel-Ready Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Resealable pouch is packable
- Relaxing lavender scent
At just 6.9 ounces, this epsom-and-Dead Sea salt blend contains enough for two baths, which is totally what you'll want to indulge in when you're having a happy long weekend, or needing to acclimate to a new time zone when traveling for business.
8. Coach Soak: Muscle Recovery Bath Soak
Best Muscle Recovery Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Fast-absorbing magnesium flakes
- Available in a variety of scents
One fatigued reviewer reports their experience: "Sore muscles from an early workout and busy 12 hour shift as an ER Nurse, my feet were screaming," they say. "It was like therapy at first inhalation...dreamy to say the least when I was soaking it felt like everything went away...worked even after I got out and didn’t feel an ache or pain the next day either." Available in lavender, citrus, peppermint and eucalyptus scents.
Best Dead Sea Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Organic essential oils
- Hand-blended formulations
Nothing artificial is used in this chemical-free, hand-blended formula. The only scent comes from the organic essential oils, added for therapeutic benefits. There's lavender, cedarwood, chamomile and—wildcard—marjoram blended in, so that their soothing aromatherapeutic properties also aid relaxation when you lie back and breathe deep.
Best Floral Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Contains Calendula flower
- No artificial fragrance
Fresh calendula flower extract and colloidal oatmeal lock in your skin's moisture, while magnesium and CBD loosen tight muscles in this clean beauty bath product. It's got notes of rose geranium, eucalyptus, ylang-ylang and lavender as well, for an all-natural and subtle "I just nodded off in a wild meadow" experience.
11. Bathing Culture Big Dipper Mineral Bath
Best Clay Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Detoxifying clay leaves skin feeling soft
- California sea salts + woodsy essences = foresting experience
Jojoba oil makes your skin silky while dissolved French clay while magnesium sulfate and sea salt melt into hot water and help you to really relax. To complete the Cali surfer vibe of this mineral bath, the essential oil scents are a blend of balsam fir, juniper and maritime pine.
Best Valerian Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love it:
- Heady scent
- Decorative bottle
"The smell of these salts is so incredible," one reviewer says. "You feel like you're really giving yourself a special experience when pouring into your bath." With notes of frankincense, myrrh and sandalwood, this soak isn't too perfumey for guy (i.e. hide it if you want it to last).
13.Lord Jones High Cbd Formula Bath Salts
Best CBD Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- 240 Mg. of CBD
- Dried arnica and calendula flowers
Lord Jones is an early adopter of CBD-as-lifestyle enhancer, and this bath salts has become a tell when you see it on someone's shelves—you know they appreciate a next-level soak. Non psychoactive, the CBD's relaxation properties combine with the salt's herbal and floral elements to bath time a prelude to sleepy time.
14. Kneipp Dream Away Valerian & Hops Mineral Bath Salt Soak
Best Value Bath Salts for Sleep
Why We Love It:
- Beautiful blue color
- Blended with valerian and hops
At a cost of about $2 per bath, this classic sea salt mineral bath delivers major relaxation for the money. The blue color is as relaxing as the super-clean smelling blend of camphor and other oils.