15 Best Essential Oils for Focus, Concentration, and Memory

How often do you find your mind wandering in the middle of work?

A lot of people struggle with losing focus and concentration when they should be paying attention to something.

Clinical research claims that some essential oils may be effective in improving focus, concentration, energy levels, and clarity of mind.

Essential oils contain molecules that can penetrate the brain barrier easily. These molecules have various functions depending on the oil you choose.

Some essential oils help lower your blood pressure. Improving the heart rate, helps your nervous system to relax.

Essential oils have soothing mechanisms that help your entire body and mind relax.

There is no way you can concentrate fully while being in pain. Essential oils can relieve you from physical pain such as headaches, joint pain, migraines, etc.

Essential Oils are mood lifters too. They help you to get relief from stress and depression and focus on your work.

Here are 15 essential oils for boosting your focus, concentration, and attention.

15 Essential Oils for Focus, Concentration, and Mental Alertness

1. Lavender Oil

Lavender Oil helps to improve concentration and focus. It is one of the rare oils that help you relax but at the same time alert your senses.

Inhaling lavender oil helps calm your nerves and relieves anxiety. It helps your mind to focus on work or study rather than on stress.

If you are losing concentration and attention in your work because of a lack of quality sleep or not being able to sleep, lavender oil is for you. It helps you to drowse off into a proper rest that enables you to feel rejuvenated in the morning. [1]

So if you are looking for essential oil for study and exams or the workplace, the lavender essential oil is a good option.

2. Frankincense Oil

Frankincense Essential Oil is known for its medicinal properties. It helps cure a lot of diseases such as indigestion, respiratory disorders, and dental issues.

Frankincense oil also helps relieve anxiety and depression. It boosts the overall well-being of the immunity system. It helps you to feel more energized.

Frankincense has analgesic properties. It helps to relieve pain. It is quite a thin oil, so you can easily use it without having to use a career oil.

When you are free of pain, stress, and anxiety while having better health, there is little chance of you losing attention to the task at hand. [2]

3. Rosemary Oil

If you are looking for an essential oil that helps with focus and memory, then rosemary essential oil might just be the one for you. [3]

Rosemary oil has been proven effective with patients having Alzheimer’s disease and even people with short-term memory issues. In both cases, rosemary has shown improvements. [4]

Rosemary oil helps with cognitive intelligence. Not only that its crisp scent helps alert your senses and mind. The combination of these properties helps you with your focus and attention as well as remembering things. The best part it rosemary also helps relieve physical pain.

If your job is very detail-oriented, then rosemary is a good option. It will help you remember small details that you need to get your work done.

4. Sage Oil

Sage oil, just like Rosemary oil, helps with cognition. But its functionality is different.

The best way that essential oil helps with focus and attention is that it boosts the senses.

Experts have used sage oil for decades as an Ayurvedic treatment for its ability to stimulate the entire human system. [5]

So not only does Sage Oil help you with memory but also alertness. The oil helps improve the transmission signal by ensuring the proper functioning of neurotransmitters.

5. Basil Oil

In case you are someone who is easily distracted, you should try out basil essential oil.

It is unique in the sense that it helps sharpen your mind and senses. Increasing the functionality of your brain helps improve not only your ability to work but the quality of work too. [6]

The reason why basil oil is perfect before an exam is because it also helps relieve anxiety. It can regulate neurotransmitters and help improve your mood.

6. Peppermint Oil

Peppermint Essential Oil has one of the sharpest scents that linger for a long time. The fragrance is often linked with keeping your focus consistent.

Rubbing the oil around your temple can give you a quick jolt of energy. Peppermint oil is also useful for its pain-relieving potential.

The menthol in peppermint oil helps you to feel that intense focus you need and even wards off drowsiness. You feel more awake than ever before, and that feeling drives you to keep your concentration on for longer. [8]

7. Lemon Oil

Do you ever feel tired even though you had enough rest? Fatigue is what is responsible for us losing our concentration and attention a lot of the time.

Lemon essential oil is a refreshing and stimulating oil. It helps to stimulate our body and mind both.

You can achieve clarity with lemon essential oil as well. It helps ease nerves and the mind allowing you to concentrate on the present.

8. Cedarwood Oil

Cedarwood oil [8] has a lovely smell that is warm and woody. It helps to calm your nerves at times you are extremely stressed.

The oil helps boost brain function because of the compound it contains called Sesquiterpenes. These active component ensures there is a proper supply of oxygen to the brain and make it work efficiently.

The scent of Cedarwood oil not only calms your senses but stimulates them. Therefore, you can concentrate better.

9. Vetiver Oil

Vetiver essential oil is one of the treatments for Attention Deficiency/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). [9]

ADHD not only causes people to lose their efficiency often but causes depression and anxiety as well. Vetiver oil has properties to treat all these side effects.

Vetiver oil creates a calming effect on anyone who has inhaled it. If you are a parent of a newborn baby or younger children and suffer from constant stress making you lose attention, then vetiver oil might be what you need.

Vetiver essential oil helps not only to calm your mind but give stability to your thoughts. The action is crucial when trying to gain attention and keep it.

10. Patchouli Oil

Patchouli essential oil is a very consistent oil regarding helps you concentrate. It has a very earthy aroma that helps you feel joyful.

Patchouli oil has a lot of properties that help you keep your attention on your work. It has incredible medicinal properties that relieve pain and improve overall health. But it has other characteristics too. [10]

A great anti-depressant, patchouli oil, is often recommended by doctors. Another advantage is that Patchouli oil can be easily mixed with other oils to create a blend.

Patchouli oil is the best when it comes to controlling sympathetic activity. Sympathetic activity often hampers our ability to function correctly or function at all.

However, using this oil makes sure that you get to concentrate and work without losing focus. The oil helps to relieve panic and calm you down.

11. Ylang Ylang Oil

Did you ever find yourself losing focus with time? Working for long hours makes people lose their concentration. Ylang Ylang Essential Oil helps with keeping focus for extended periods of time.

Ylang Ylang essential oil has the potential to monitor cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that is released when your stress levels rise.

Ylang Ylang oil helps to control the amount of cortisol in your system. Thus helping you relax and making less stressed.

Only by inhaling Ylang Ylang essential oil, you can feel calmer. When you are more relaxed, you can concentrate and be more attentive to the work at hand. [11]

12. Black Spruce Oil

Black spruce essential oil [12] deals with your energy levels. The oil helps reduce the feeling of tiredness we get during work.

Fatigue can make us lose our focus and concentration quite easily. Black Spruce oil helps stimulate our entire body. It causes the production of cortisone to increase considerably.

Cortisone also helps reduce any pain that you might be feeling and makes you feel relaxed.
Black Spruce Essential oil is also great for creating an immediate effect on clarity. It helps to keep you alert and awake during any work.

13. Orange Oil

Orange essential oil not only helps you feel energetic but also assists you in feeling motivated. It induces positive thinking that you might need when you are having a hard day at work or school.

Stress and depression often cause you to feel fatigued. Orange essential oil helps you feel more productive by fighting off the feeling of anxiety and depression. It has a strong scent that works for much longer than most oils.

Mixing orange oil with peppermint and frankincense oil will give you a potent essential oil blend that will work miracles in helping you concentrate more. [13]

14. Grapefruit Oil

Grapefruit essential oil has a lot of health benefits for both the mind and body.

The antioxidant properties of grapefruit oil help promote healthy blood flow in the entire body. It also assists in releasing more fatty acids that our body uses to release to produce higher energy. [14]

Grapefruit essential oil is a mood-lifting oil. Thus using this oil will get you in better spirits and focus more on your tasks with a positive attitude.

15. Cypress Oil

Cypress essential oil is a mild oil with bold results. It heals a lot of diseases and helps both our mind and body. [15]

Cypress oil has a grounding effect. It gives you a sense of emotional stability. In case you are someone who tends to feel doubtful about your work a lot which results in losing your attention, cypress oil is for you.

This oil is known for its benefits to the circulatory system. It helps improve your energy levels. It also has a mild tranquilizing effect that installs a sense of calmness in you.

Cypress Essential Oil is also nootropic. Having this property means that it helps improve memory function. Thus you will be able to remember details that you otherwise could have forgotten. Not only that but it helps motivate you to work more!

Essential Oil Blend Recipe for Mental Focus and Concentration

The oils in the list work perfectly fine on their own, but some essential oil blends work even better!

So here is an essential oil recipe for you to try out:

Things You Will Need:

A rollerball tube
Rosemary essential oil
Lemon essential oil
Peppermint essential oil

Directions:

Pour about 7 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil into a rollerball tube.
Add 5 drops of lemon essential oil and 3 drops of peppermint oil.
You can add a carrier oil or frankincense oil to the combination as well. (optional step)
Close the rollerball tube and shake.
You can smell amazing while staying focused now!
Try rubbing the oil on your temples or behind your ears or on your neck to get the best results.

Final Thoughts

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”-Alexander Graham Bell

Who wouldn’t love to be super focused all the time? But it is quite hard to do so in the fast-paced life of this era.

To stay focused and be able to concentrate, you need to stay relaxed and well-rested. Some essential oils have potent sedative and calming properties to help you do that.

The restorative oils may relieve physical pain and other health conditions that alter our attention and focus from work.