Sleeping well doesn’t always come naturally. But it has for Mary Rodney. After retiring in 2021, Rodney used her passion for gardening to begin a business selling herbal tea blends and culinary herbs. The origin of these herbal blend creations came from her personal quest to find a natural remedy for her own sleepless nights. A long-time gardener in the New Albany Community Garden, she now sells her herbs at the New Albany Farmers Market and her website, www.seedswellsown.com. She also gardens at the Shepherd’s Corner Ecology Center of the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
Her interview with HNA Magazine has been edited for length and clarity.
Healthy New Albany Magazine: Why was getting a good night’s sleep difficult for you?
Mary Rodney: I hit menopause in my 50s. At that same time, I have three teenagers and I was a working parent and wife. So I think the confluence of all of those factors just kind of made me stressed, as far as being a parent, all that stuff, getting ready for college with my kids. So the combination of being a parent and having to get up and go to work every day. With the menopause, I ended up, you know, most women get the night sweats and all of that and then all of a sudden I just couldn't sleep, I couldn't stay asleep. And so by the second or third day of that, of getting up every day having like two or three hours of sleep, interrupted sleep it just made me feel exhausted by the third day. I didn't want to go on any of the prescription drugs to help me sleep. My doctor knew I was in menopause. She said, “You know there's a couple things we can put you on as far as medicine.” I just didn't want to go on hormones and all of that. I'd heard and read stories about all of that. So I said to her, “If it gets to that, we'll talk later but I would like to try and see if I can find something all-natural or grow something all natural to help myself.” So that was my challenge. I started with melatonin and that did not work for me at all. That's a fairly common sleep aid that most people use. I just started going to the library and doing some research and my research brought me to lemon balm and lemon verbena. So I went looking for those at the store – couldn't find them. So I ended up getting the actual live plants, growing them
and I started experimenting with teas for myself. And I found that by the third night of having a cup of lemon balm and chamomile, I was actually able to get four to five hours of deep sleep. So even if I woke up early, I'd say like two o'clock in the morning, I didn't feel as stressed because I had that deep sleep. I also had a couple of friends and sisters across the country who were going through the same thing and I said, “You know, I'm doing this, would you like to try it?” and so they tried it. So for about 10 years, I had been sending those to people across the country just because it was helping me and it was helping them and they were telling other people about it. So that's how I got into it. And then I noticed that some of the all-natural sleep aids that you find in the store have those same ingredients listed as part of their packaging.
HNA: Is having a cup of tea still your routine every night?
MR: I've gotten better about it. So I won't necessarily have it every night. But if I have a stressful day or something and I just want to relax, I may make myself a cup of tea during the day. I also have friends and relatives who have depression, anxiety. They will have a cup of tea and it just seems to help.
HNA: How is your sleep now?
MR: I sleep like a baby since I retired. And I'm no longer in menopause. So I mean, I get like maybe five, six hours of sleep and that's enough for me. But I think the important thing is I'm not stressed; I don't have days where that's happening anymore.
Claire Miller is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at cmiller@cityscenemediagroup.com.
