In our latest blog, Brooke Oke, owner of Goodkind Naturopathy and qualified naturopath, has been generous enough to give us her take on which particular herbs can be used to assist in getting better quality sleep. Brooke also has her on blog which can be found at https://www.goodkind.com.au/naturopathy-tips-blog. So let’s hear from Brooke below:

Natural sleep solutions

Sometimes simple actions such as having a wind down routine, avoiding screens after dark, dimming the lights, cooling the room or avoiding caffeine after midday can provide a lot of benefit for a good night's sleep. However, sometimes these things don’t cut it. Thankfully we have herbal medicines! Herbs are safe and effective for many different ailments. These are my top herbs to support a deep, restful and rejuvenating sleep.

Green oats

Oats (Avena sativa) are one of my favourite nervine tonic herbs. The gentle tonifying properties of oats make them a wonderful herb for lowered energy and vitality, particularly from stress. They are a gentle nerve calmer which makes them nice to have after dinner to ease the mind and nervous system. They are deliciously sweet when brewed as a tea.

A product containing oats and valerian was clinically trialled for insomnia, due to its potential upregulation of serotonin and dopamine, in this particular study, SurAsleep (oats and valerian extract) had shown potent effects in relieving somnipathy-related symptoms and improving sleep quality in sleep disorder patients (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26199580/).

Passionflower

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) has a well known anxiolytic and sedative quality which makes it one of my top picks when treating sleep onset issues, heightened stress and anxiety. I like to think of it as natural valium as it works on our GABA receptors which have similar actions to benzodiazepine drugs - without the addictive nature. Taking passionflower during the day can help lower peaks of cortisol (stress hormone) which improves night time melatonin production (sleep hormone), so it can be useful if you’re someone suffering high levels of stress throughout the day.

Oral passionflower has a long history of use as a sedative and may improve symptoms of anxiety in some patients. Preliminary clinical research shows that taking a specific dried alcoholic extract of passion flower (Sedanxio, Tilman SA) 400 mg orally twice daily for 2-8 weeks reduces the severity of non-specific anxiety when compared to baseline.

Passionflower has also shown promising outcomes from clinical studies on insomnia. Preliminary research in audits with insomnia showed that taking passionflower extract (60mg) every night before bed for two weeks improved total sleep time by around 23 minutes (​​DOI: 10.1002/ptr.3400).

Withania

Withania, otherwise known as Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera) is probably the most well known adaptogen herb in western and eastern medicine. It is my most commonly used adaptogen in clinical practice as it employs so many incredible health benefits.

There are loads of studies discussing the efficacy and safety of withania for sleep, anxiety, low mood, low energy and many other health issues. It is high in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds making it a great tonic for longevity.

In a double-blind RCT from 2019, Ashwagandha root extract was found to be a natural compound with sleep-inducing potential, it was well tolerated and improves sleep quality and sleep onset latency in patients with insomnia at a dose of 300 mg extract twice daily (DOI:10.7759/cureus.5797)

Another double-blind RCT from 2021 found in both healthy and patients who suffered insomnia, there was a significant improvement in the sleep parameters in the Ashwagandha root extract supplemented group. The improvement was found more significant in insomnia subjects than healthy subjects (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874120331585?via%3Dihub)

Reishi mushroom

Medicinal mushrooms are becoming a more widely used supplement as they hold a host of benefits and are readily accessible and safe! Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) is the most well known for it’s anti-anxiety benefits which makes it perfect for a restful sleep. I recommend using Reishi in tincture form as it’s powdered version can be quite bitter and pungent (go for it if you like the flavour!).

Studies suggest that it’s improvement in sleep quality may be due to the gut microbiota improvement via increase of serotonin production, which enhances sleep quality and mood. This study showed that GLAA (Ganoderma lucidum)  promotes sleep through a gut microbiota-dependent and serotonin-associated pathway in mice (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92913-6).

These herbs are safe to take in tea form or as an over the counter supplement, however if you’re wanting something more individualised to support your sleep, I would recommend seeking support from a naturopath or herbalist.

- Brooke Oke (BHSc, BN, PostGradDipMHN)

Goodkind Naturopathy - https://www.goodkind.com.au/