Full profile
| Also known as | Valeriana officinalis, Valerian root |
|---|---|
| Best for | Traditional evening sleep-onset support (efficacy unproven) · A calm-slot option for people who tolerate it |
| Evidence grade | Grade C — Limited — early or small human trials |
| Studied dose range | 225–1215 mg/day of extract; most commonly 300–600 mg taken 30–120 minutes before bed. |
| Time to effect | Inconsistent; where any benefit appears it tends to require repeated nightly dosing over ~2–4 weeks rather than a single dose. |
| Best form | Aqueous or hydroethanolic root/rhizome extract; standardization (valerenic acid) is inconsistent across products, which is a core reason the evidence is muddy. Odor and palatability are poor. |
Evidence, honestly graded
Limited and genuinely borderline — graded C only because there is no safety or legal veto to justify Graded Out, not because the evidence is convincing. The strongest systematic reviews conclude the evidence is inconclusive (Stevinson 2000) and that the only positive result is a dichotomous self-reported "slept better" that disappears on objective measures, with documented publication bias (Bent 2006). A more favorable 2020 review (Shinjyo 2020) reports benefit but pools 60 heterogeneous studies and blames inconsistent results on variable extract quality. Under a replication-over-recency standard, the honest read is "traditional use, efficacy unproven" — we would not headline an efficacy claim on valerian.
See the full grading rubric — study type, replication, population match, and dose adequacy — in The Evidence Standard.
Side effects
- Headache, dizziness, GI upset, morning grogginess
- Occasional paradoxical stimulation
- Rare hepatotoxicity case reports (largely combination products or confounded)
Who should avoid it or check first
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding (insufficient data)
- Before driving or operating machinery
- Pre-existing liver concerns
- Within 1–2 weeks of surgery (anesthesia potentiation)
Interactions
- Adds to the effect of CNS depressants — benzodiazepines, barbiturates, alcohol, opioids, sedating antihistamines — and to anesthesia
Stacks well with
- Lemon Balm (traditional pairing)
Use caution stacking with
- Other sedatives or sleep agents without clinician guidance
What to look for on a label
- Do not headline an efficacy claim — the objective evidence does not support one. Traditional-use wording only.
- Health Canada's labelling standard permits a "sleeping aid / sedative" claim on a traditional-use-and-safety basis, which is not a finding that clinical efficacy is proven — keep the two separate.
References
- Stevinson C, Ernst E (2000). Sleep Medicine, 1(2):91–99Evidence inconclusive; results inconsistent.
- Bent S, Padula A, Moore D, Patterson M, Mehling W (2006). The American Journal of Medicine, 119(12):1005–1012Only a subjective, dichotomous benefit; publication bias detected.
- Shinjyo et al. (2020) — more favorable review (optimistic outlier). Pools 60 heterogeneous studies and reports subjective sleep/anxiety benefit, but attributes the inconsistency to variable extract quality. Presented as the optimistic outlier, not the anchor. PMID 33086877. Educational, not a product claim.
Grades and studied doses are our conservative reading of the human research, shown for education. They are not product claims, and a studied dose is not a recommended dose.
See how Valerian compares on grade, dose, and goal in the Evidence Explorer.