Standardized valerian extract shows acute sleep benefits after one day, says recent study
Results showed that people taking the Valerian extract experiences an acute benefit on sleep, namely a significant increase in actual sleep time compared to baseline.
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A recent publication on a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study1 investigated the effects of a proprietary Valeriana officinalis extract on sleep quality. In the study, 80 participants with sleep complaints were randomized to receive either 200 mg of the extract or placebo for eight weeks and evaluated on the following sleep parameters: sleep time, sleep latency, and sleep efficiency using wrist actigraphy device. Results showed that after a single dose, people taking the Valerian extract experiences an acute benefit on sleep, namely a significant increase in actual sleep time compared to baseline.
“We observed a 9% improvement in actual sleep time over baseline in our study. This is an important finding as the actual sleep time is crucial to improve brain performance, mood and overall health,” wrote the researchers. “In addition, VE supplementation showed marginal non-significant improvements in sleep latency (8.49%) and sleep efficiency (4.69%) compared to baseline, whereas subjects in the placebo group showed significant worsening of these parameters. This could be due to the change in sleep environment of subjects as they were housed at the study facility, a different environment than their regular sleep environment at home. However, it is important to note that even in this situation, VE supplementation showed significant effects on actual sleep time and slightly improved sleep latency and sleep efficiency which could be a point of further research in future studies.”
The extract used in the study was Sleeproot from OmniActive Health Technologies (Bridgewater, NJ), which is standardized to 2% total valerenic acid.
Reference
Shekhar, H.C.; Morde, A.; Padigaru, M.; Joshua, L.; Thomas, J.V. Single Dose Administration of Valeriana officinalis Extract Improves Actual Sleep Time: A Randomized, Double-Blind, PlaceboControlled Study. Adv Complement Alt Med.. 2024, 8 (3). DOI: 10.31031/ACAM.2024.07.000688
Updated on January 6, 2025 at 12:15PM EST.
