What if there were some extremely powerful and ancient sleep herbs that could not only help you fall asleep faster but also help you to stay asleep?

I’ve tried many different types of herbs to help my sleep over the years and some of them worked and some of them didn’t. I’d read reviews where people swore by them and yet I didn’t get the same results.

I’d still have trouble falling asleep (couldn’t turn off my mind) or I’d wake up often during the night without being able to fall back asleep.

Why did certain sleep herbs work for others but not me?

I think I figured it out, kind of.

Perhaps its the way we’re wired or our genetics but it could be something else entirely.

Back in 2005 I learned the concept of “stacking the odds in your favor“. Essentially it means to do so many things that are in favor of your health, that they all work together to support your goals.

I like to think of it like a teeter totter with two kids that weigh exactly the same on each side. If you add one small rock to one side of the teeter totter, nothing changes. But if you add hundreds or thousands of small rocks to one side, eventually one side of the teeter totter goes down while the other goes up.

This concept has a compounding effect on your overall health.

In terms of improving my sleep…

I like stacking as many odds in favor of sleep as possible like

• Taking sleep herbs
• Regulating my light environment
• Getting sunshine
• Lowering sugar in my diet
• Exercise
• Taking care of my liver
• Doing yearly cleanses
• Turning off Wifi
• Wearing blue blocking glasses
• Meditation
• Magnesium baths
• Reading
• Stretching
• etc

You don’t really know which one is working and to what extent but together they can work wonders.

Sometimes 2+2=22.

Along with all of the sleep biohacks above I like to also stack some really great sleep supplements like the ones below.

I also like to try specific supplements (along with sleep herbs) that help with insomnia and other sleep conditions. Some of my favorites include…

1. GABA – I like to start at 750mg
2. Melatonin – I take 20mg per night but you have to do it right!
3. Glycine powder – Must be in powder form in high doses 2,000 to 3,000 mg (scoops)
4. Magnesium – 300 to 400mg is a great place to start

What Are Herbs?

I like to think of herbs as ancient plant medicines. I don’t consider them to be foods in as much as plant materials that have unique abilities once inside the human body. Most drugs and medications have their source in the plant kingdom. Herbs can be used as medicines, spices, flavor enhancers and for first aid.

Wikipedia defines herbs as

“a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances.”

Herbs are a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal, savory, or aromatic qualities. Herbs are used in cooking to flavor food, in medicine to treat various ailments, and in some cases, for their aromatic properties in products like perfumes and cosmetics.

Getting herbs into your diet through tinctures, powders (into smoothies), capsules, teas, herbal infusions, decoctions, or through cooking is extremely healing to the body. Some herbs like ayahuasca even have psychedelic effects.

I’ve never done an ayahuasca “ceremony” before and right now I don’t intend to.

The point is that herbs are medicines so it makes sense that there would be sleep herbs that can help calm the nervous system and help you turn off your mind and fall asleep. I believe God gives us all the medicines (herbs, essential oils, homeopathic, plants etc) along with the foods (fruits, vegetables and animals) to thrive in our world.

My Top  Sleep Herbs

There are hundreds of herbs from all over the world and ancient medicines that help with sleep. Personally I’m not interested in herb #456. I’m interested in the top 10 or the top 6 herbs for sleep that have the most bang for their buck.

Here’s a list of my top 7 sleep herbs…

1. Valerian
2. Passionflower
3. St. John’s Wort
4. Lemon Balm
5. Skullcap
6. Zizyphus Seed (Suan Zao Ren)
7. CBD (Cannabidiol)

How Do These Herbs Work For Sleep?

As with most aspects of all the articles I write, I’m going to include scientific research studies and papers that support my claims. I like to include these in case people want to argue that “there’s no science behind herbalism”. 🙂

Valerian for Sleep

Valerian works by increasing the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. GABA is a neurotransmitter that has an extremely calming effect on the nervous system, which helps to reduce anxiety and promote sleep. This is one of my “go to” herbs for sleep that I’ve been using for years. Valerian has also been shown to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep effectively, and it can work as well as benzodiazepine drugs like Valium.

Studies show that valerian can also help the non REM stages of sleep (the deep sleep cycles)

Passionflower for Sleep

Passionflower also increases the levels of GABA in the brain, similar to valerian. This helps to reduce brain activity and lower brainwaves, leading to a calming effect that can alleviate anxiety and improve sleep quality in both REM sleep and  non REM sleep cycles. It has been used historically to relieve insomnia and anxiety.

St. John’s Wort for Sleep

St. John’s Wort works mainly by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine in the brain. It’s one of the most powerful herbs in doing that. This action can increase the levels of these particular neurotransmitters, which then can improve mood and reduce anxiety, thereby promoting better sleep. It is often promoted in natural communities as a natural antidepressant.

Lemon Balm for Sleep

Lemon Balm has calming properties that reduce stress and anxiety, making it easier to fall asleep. It works by modulating the GABA system and has been shown to have sedative effects in clinical studies.

Skullcap for Sleep

Skullcap contains complex plant compounds that bind to GABA receptors in the brain, enhancing the effects of GABA and promoting relaxation. It has been used for neurological conditions such as insomnia, epilepsy, and anxiety, making it a potent herb for sleep. 

Zizyphus Seed (Suan Zao Ren) for Sleep

Zizyphus Seed is known to increase the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. It also has sedative properties that help to calm the mind and promote restful sleep.

CBD (Cannabidiol) for Sleep

CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid system (ECS) by stimulating cannabinoid receptors in the brain and neurological system. This helps to regulate sleep, reduce anxiety, and alleviate pain, all of which contribute to better sleep quality. CBD products are typically free of THC, so they do not produce a ‘high’ and are legal in various forms.

Conclusion

These 7 sleep herbs seem to all work on the same GABA receptors yet have slightly different mechanisms of action. I would try one at at time starting with valerian first and give that at least a week to see if it works for helping fall asleep.

You want to give it multiple nights under different sleeping conditions to see the effectiveness of the herb. If it doesn’t work, I would try increasing the dose or changing from a tincture to a powder while trying different doses of that. You could also try mixing up different brands or taking them at different times of the day.

I personally love the valerian root as my “go to” sleep herb.

Since herbs have all of the supporting plant alkaloids and they’re not synthetically concentrated like drugs are, it’s very difficult to have any kind of adverse reaction by stacking multiple natural substances together. For example, I would (and have) taken both valerian, magnesium and melatonin at the same time. Most of the time I take them a few hours from each other.

Regardless always check with your medical doctor about taking and sleep herbs like this, just to be safe. Feel free to share the studies above with him also.

Questions:

• Do you currently take any sleep herbs?
• If so, how do you take them? Tincture, infusion, decoction, powder, capsule?
• Which sleep herbs have worked for you and which haven’t?

Comment below.