By: Maria Noël Groves, Clinical Herbalist & Author at Wintergreen Botanicals
Do you get less than seven hours of sleep per night? If so, count yourself among the 35 percent of Americans who aren’t sleeping enough. (Younger folks under age 65, Black, Indigenous, and/or Asian people are even more likely to get insufficient sleep.)[i] With each generation, we get less and less sleep.[ii] With sleep deprivation comes many increased health risks including susceptibility to respiratory infections,[iii][iv] weight gain, [v][vi][vii][viii][ix] blood sugar instability, [x][xi] heart disease, [xii][xiii] inflammation, pain, and worse cognition, focus, [xiv][xv] and mood.[xvi][xvii][xviii]
A Wholistic Approach
While herbs and dietary supplements can play a role in supporting sleep quality, it’s even more important to look at the big picture to determine why someone isn’t sleeping well and also address that.
Common triggers of sleep deprivation and insomnia include not prioritizing sleep, poor sleep hygiene, blood sugar dysregulation, stress, peri/post menopause hot flashes and general hormone shifts, sleep apnea, alcohol, caffeine, large or late night meals and snacks, and screen time.
Practice good sleep hygiene by shutting down screens and stopping eating several hours before bedtime and engaging in relaxing activities at night. Consider wearing an eye mask and/or ear plugs. Reduce or eliminate caffeine and alcohol intake.
A Quick Glance at Natural Remedies
A variety of options are available for sleep support, and some will work better than others for each individual. It’s helpful to start with a low dose and build up over a few days to a week to assess your body’s response. For sleep support, most remedies are best taken 15 minutes to 2 hours before bed. If you use a tincture (alcohol extract) or other concentrated liquid extract, you can take ½ to 1 full dose if you wake in the middle of the night. If you’re using tea, brew it strong and small, so you don’t have to get up to pee.
Sedatives & Stronger Calmatives are commonly used to support sleep. They likely work by relaxing the central nervous system and binding to the calming GABA neurotransmitter receptor sites. These remedies can be used solo or in combination blends.
Cautions: Don’t take these herbs before driving or operating heavy machinery until you know how they affect you. These herbs may increase sedation and interact with a range of medications including those used for anxiety, sleep, depression, and pain. They are not generally appropriate if you have sleep apnea. Certain sedative herbs in some people may aggravate depression or melancholy with regular use – this is highly individual by person and plant.
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) roots may be the most famous sleep herb. It improves the ability to fall asleep for some people and can be a modest-to-strong sedative and muscle relaxant, helping you fall asleep and possibly get better quality sleep. However, some people feel agitated and overstimulated with valerian (as if they had caffeine) and others feel groggy, so it’s persnickety. Studies show mixed results for sleep,[xix] and perhaps that’s why. I prefer valerian for people who are cold, tense, and anxious, and I recommend trying it solo first in low doses to make sure you tolerate it. It smells like stinky feet, skunk, and perfume-y dirt. I prefer it as a fresh root tincture, but other formats work for some folks.
Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) aerial parts have a somewhat potent cooling sedative effect that tends to work well across more people more reliably and effectively than valerian. It has performed extremely well in a handful of studies, sometimes as well as prescription medications.[xx][xxi][xxii] I prefer it in tea (alongside more flavorful herbs like spearmint, holy basil, lemon, or lemon balm) or tincture, but pills and other formats tend to work nicely, too.
Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) flowers, often prepared as tea, are classic worldwide for sleep support for children, elders, postpartum people, and everyone in between. It has a gentle-to-profound calmative action and improves digestion, settles the stomach, and quells stressful states.[xxiii][xxiv][xxv] Note that the pollen of these daisy family flowers aggravate some people with allergies; otherwise chamomile is generally well tolerated by most people.
These are just a few of the many remedies that are employed to support sleep. A few other favorites of mine:
- Kava (tincure, tea, or phytocaps) offers a potent calming effect without being overtly sedating. Although most people can take it for daytime stress without getting sleepy, those who are anxious may find it works well for sleep, too. I prefer it for occasional use.
- Lemon Balm has mild yet profound calming effects that can be taken solo as tea or tincture (or other format) or alongside other sleep herbs in formula. It’s more calming than sedating and is less likely to pose the side effect risks mentioned earlier. I particularly love it as tea or fresh plant tincture. It loses potency quickly, and direct-from-the-farm (or your yard) fresh or dried herb tea or fresh leaf tincture works vastly better than most of what is sold commercially in my experience. It’s a kid-friendly herb as well.
- Melatonin is the hormone that regulates sleep cycles and is generally taken in ½ to 5 mg an hour or more before bedtime in people who have a difficult time maintaining regular circadian rhythms. It may also support people with reflux (it seems to tone the lower esophageal sphincter), among other unexpected side benefits.
- Lavender inhaled or ingested has calming benefits, especially if you enjoy the aroma.
- Daytime adaptogens, such as ashwagandha in particular, may help support a healthy response to stress and circadian rhythms to improve sleep. While most adults do well with ashwagandha – with improvements in libido, calm energy, mood, thyroid boost, and more – some people feel more agitated by it. Avoid ashwagandha in people who have hyperthyroid disease and use caution alongside hypothyroid medications.
- Restorative Nervines support stress response by gently calming and nourishing the nervous system and stress response. They can be used solo or alongside both day and night blends and are generally free of the caution concerns mentioned earlier. My favorites include milky oat seed fresh extract (tincture, glycerite, vinegar, or phytocap) and holy basil/tulsi. Tulsi is excellent in any format; however, it’s particularly delightful as tea – I often combine it with lemon balm – and is vastly better quality in commerce as a fresh plant extract or direct-from-the-farm (or your backyard) dried herb/tea. The temperate/Kapoor variety grows best in New Hampshire gardens.
Always check with your doctor before taking a new herb or supplement if you are on medications or have chronic health conditions. Although I have listed a few common herb/supplement-drug interactions above, it’s not an exhaustive list. Please consult with a naturopathic doctor or herbalist skilled in prenatal care and breastfeeding if you’re in these special groups.
Learn More
Join Maria for an Online Class on Sleep
Join me for my thorough, detailed 3-hour detailed Sleep Support Webinar!
This online class live streams on Thursday, January 6, 2022, 6-9 pm Eastern Time and will also be recorded and available on-demand as a replay after that. Students will have access to the webinar live stream/recording, detailed notes, and full color slides.
If you register by January 6, all registration income will be donated to ORIS (Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success), a nonprofit farm-based New Hampshire organization that helps provide resources, food access, and training in self-sufficiency for our local refugee and immigrant communities. Learn more about ORIS at www.refugeesuccess.org. You may also donate directly to ORIS.
Register for the class here.
Take an Herbal Study Series with Maria
The Home Herbalist Series begins January 18, 2022. This introductory/intermediate series runs every other Tuesday night through May for 9 classes total, covering core body systems, common health concerns, and common remedy-making techniques including stress, calm, digestion, detoxification, nutritive, heart, immune, blood sugar, reproductive hormones. This course is also available online on-demand (pre-recorded) any time, and periodically in-person in Allenstown, NH during the summer. Learn more and register here.
The Beyond the Home Herbalist Series continues the theme of the Home Herbalist Series with additional body systems, remedy techniques, and health concerns including medicinal mushrooms, safely combining herbs and pharmaceuticals, bone strength, brain and cognition, lungs, pain, longevity, and skin. This series runs via live stream and/or in person in late summer/autumn and is available any time online on demand. Learn more and register here.
The Advanced Herbalist Training Program begins January 11, 2022. It is also available on demand online any time and some years in person in Allenstown, NH during the growing season. Students must have completed Maria’s Home Herbalist and Beyond the Home Herbalist series or similar program elsewhere to take this rigorous, advanced, content-dense course. Guest speakers, too! Learn more and register here.
Stay Tuned – On May 19, 2022, Maria will teach a FREE online class on “Easy Growing Herbs” for the Concord Food Co-op. Registration TBA as we get closer.
Maria teaches individual classes throughout the year online, sometimes in person, and for other organizations. For the most up-to-date list of ALL Maria’s upcoming classes, click here.
Check Out Maria’s Books
Maria’s books Body into Balance and Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies also discuss sleep and other health topics covered in Maria’s Home Herbalist and Beyond the Home Herbalist series. Signed copies of both books are available for sale at the Concord Food Co-op in Concord, NH.
Maria Noël Groves, RH (AHG), clinical herbalist, runs Wintergreen Botanicals, nestled in the pine forests of New Hampshire. Her business is devoted to education and empowerment via classes, consultations, and writing with the foundational belief that good health grows in nature. She is the author of the award-winning, best-selling Body into Balance: An Herbal Guide to Holistic Self Care and Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies. Learn more about Maria and medicinal herbs at WintergreenBotanicals.com.
References
[i] https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html
[ii] https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/files/docs/public/sleep/healthy_sleep.pdf
[iii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4531403/
[iv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8286239/
[v] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3669080/
[vi] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3619301/
[vii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3763921/
[viii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3564645/
[ix] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19538695/
[x] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394987/
[xi] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4865553/
[xii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3403737/
[xiii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2643002/
[xiv] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21075236/
[xv] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C7&as_vis=1&q=sleep+deprivation+cognition&btnG=
[xvi] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31389873/
[xvii] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15798944/
[xviii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6143346/
[xix] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25644982/
[xx] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21294203/
[xxi] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31714321/
[xxii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3608291/ this study is on a combination blend, but studies performed on the other herbs in the blend without passionflower were less impressive
[xxiii] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29154054/
