Calm Teas

Sleep

Which tea is best for sleep? What the evidence actually supports

Published · By Calm Teas (how we work)

Key takeaways

  • Few bedtime herbs have been tested as tea. Passionflower is the only one we found with a placebo-tea trial showing better sleep, and it was small.
  • Chamomile tea has small trials with no placebo drink; reviews that pool tea and extract studies show better sleep-quality scores but no longer sleep.
  • Valerian has the most research and the weakest recent verdicts for insomnia.
  • If you have ongoing insomnia, tea isn't a treatment; talk to a clinician.

Short answer: which bedtime tea has the best evidence?

If you judge only by trials that gave people tea, passionflower is ahead. In a week-long trial, 41 healthy young adults rated their sleep quality better after nightly passionflower tea than after a placebo tea (Ngan & Conduit, 2011). That’s a small study in which one of six sleep-diary measures improved, so it’s a modest lead, not a verdict.

Every other bedtime herb either has tea trials without a placebo drink, or has been tested mostly as an extract.

Common bedtime-tea herbs. Evidence grade reflects the form tested, not product quality.
HerbEvidenceTraditional tea amount (EU)Teas in index
Passionflower Tested as tea 1–2 g per 150 ml 10
Chamomile Tested as tea 1.5–4 g per 150 ml 29
Lavender Tested as tea 1–2 g per 150 ml 10
Lemon balm Extract trials only 1.5–4.5 g per 150 ml 7
Valerian root Mixed results 0.3–3 g per 150 ml 4
Hops Extract trials only 0.5–1 g per 150–200 ml 2
Linden flower Traditional use only 1.5 g per 150 ml 7

Does chamomile tea help you sleep?

There’s one clear tea trial: postnatal women who drank chamomile tea for two weeks had fewer physical-symptom-related sleep problems than women who got usual care, but the benefit was gone two weeks later and there was no placebo drink (Chang & Chen, 2016). Reviews that combine tea and extract studies find better scores on sleep questionnaires, but no longer sleep and no better sleep efficiency (Kazemi et al., 2024). A 2015 review of trials in people with insomnia found no herbal product, chamomile included, beat placebo (Leach & Page, 2015).

More detail: Chamomile tea for sleep.

Is valerian tea worth trying?

Valerian has the most trials, and recent reviews of them are unconvincing. A 2024 umbrella review found no evidence that valerian works for insomnia (Valente et al., 2024), and a 2023 umbrella review reached a similar conclusion (Ell et al., 2023). NCCIH notes that the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended against it for chronic insomnia (NCCIH fact sheet). We found no trial of valerian tea. Hops have only been tested in tablets combined with valerian, with modest self-reported benefit and no change in sleep-lab measures (Morin et al., 2005).

How much herb should a sleep tea contain?

The EU herbal committee’s traditional amounts are a useful yardstick: 1–2 g of passionflower per cup (EU herbal monograph), or 0.3–3 g of valerian root half an hour to an hour before bed (EU herbal monograph). Most US tea boxes don’t say how much of each herb is in a bag. The few that give a number in our index state a total “proprietary blend” weight, such as 690 mg of chamomile and valerian combined, without the split. See the tea decoder.

How do I choose a bedtime tea?

  1. Pick the herb, then the box. Use the decoder to find teas that list passionflower, chamomile or lemon balm.
  2. Check the flags. Passionflower should not be used in pregnancy and can cause drowsiness (NCCIH fact sheet). Valerian shouldn’t be combined with alcohol or sedatives (NCCIH fact sheet). Chamomile can trigger allergies in people sensitive to ragweed or daisies.
  3. Watch for melatonin. Some “sleep” teas add it. That’s a supplement, not an herb, with its own considerations.
  4. Treat it as a wind-down ritual. In the trials above, effects were small and short-lived.

When tea isn't enough

If you’ve had trouble sleeping for weeks, or it’s affecting your days, talk to a doctor. Ongoing insomnia has effective treatments that a tea won’t replace.

Sources

  1. Ngan & Conduit (2011). A double-blind, placebo-controlled investigation of the effects of Passiflora incarnata (passionflower) herbal tea on subjective sleep quality. Phytother Res.
    Human trial (randomized, double-blind, placebo tea, crossover) · form: tea
    41 healthy adults aged 18–35 drank one cup of passionflower tea or a placebo tea nightly for a week each. Diary-rated sleep quality was better with passionflower; the other five diary measures were not reported as different.
    Limits: Healthy young adults with mild sleep fluctuations; one week per arm; subjective outcome.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 21294203
  2. Lee et al. (2020). Effects of Passiflora incarnata Linnaeus on polysomnographic sleep parameters in subjects with insomnia disorder: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study. Int Clin Psychopharmacol.
    Human trial (randomized, double-blind, placebo) · form: extract
    110 adults with insomnia disorder took passionflower extract or placebo for 2 weeks. Total sleep time on polysomnography increased more with passionflower; sleep efficiency and wake time improved within the group but not versus placebo.
    Limits: Extract, not tea. Two weeks only.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 31714321
  3. Chang & Chen (2016). Effects of an intervention with drinking chamomile tea on sleep quality and depression in sleep disturbed postnatal women: a randomized controlled trial. J Adv Nurs.
    Human trial (randomized, no placebo) · form: tea
    80 postnatal women in Taiwan with poor sleep drank chamomile tea for 2 weeks or received usual care. The tea group had lower scores for physical-symptom-related sleep inefficiency and depression at 2 weeks; the difference was gone at 4 weeks.
    Limits: Control group got no placebo drink, so expectation effects can't be separated out. Short follow-up. One specific population.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 26483209
  4. Kazemi et al. (2024). Effects of chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) on sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials. Complement Ther Med.
    Systematic review + meta-analysis · form: mixed
    10 clinical trials (772 adults). Chamomile lowered PSQI sleep-quality scores on average (5 studies pooled) and improved night-time awakenings in 2 of 3 studies, but did not change sleep duration, sleep efficiency or daytime functioning.
    Limits: Very high heterogeneity in the pooled PSQI result (I² 88%). Trials mixed tea and extract preparations. Only one trial checked blinding or product potency.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 39106912
  5. Leach & Page (2015). Herbal medicine for insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Med Rev.
    Systematic review + meta-analysis · form: mixed
    14 randomized trials (1,602 people with insomnia) of valerian, chamomile, kava and wuling. No herbal medicine differed from placebo on any of 13 efficacy measures. Valerian had more adverse events per person than placebo.
    Limits: Published 2015; preparations were mostly not teas.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 25644982
  6. Valente et al. (2024). Does valerian work for insomnia? An umbrella review of the evidence. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol.
    Umbrella review · form: mixed
    Eight systematic reviews of valerian. Good safety profile, but no evidence of efficacy for treating insomnia; some subjective sleep-quality improvement not confirmed by objective measures.
    Limits: Underlying trials scarce, heterogeneous and of low methodological quality.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 38359657
  7. Ell et al. (2023). Complementary and alternative treatments for insomnia disorder: a systematic umbrella review. J Sleep Res.
    Umbrella review · form: mixed
    Systematic reviews of alternative insomnia treatments. Valerian (and light exposure) did not significantly improve outcomes in adults with insomnia disorder.
    Limits: Focus on diagnosed insomnia disorder, not occasional poor sleep.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 37527850
  8. NCCIH (NIH). Valerian, updated May 2025.
    Government fact sheet
    Evidence for sleep is inconsistent; the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2017) recommended against valerian for chronic insomnia. Generally safe short-term for most adults; side effects include headache, stomach upset and vivid dreams; very rare liver injury, mostly with other herbs. Should not be combined with alcohol or sedatives. Little is known about pregnancy and breastfeeding.
    checked against the official page, 2026-10-21
  9. NCCIH (NIH). Passionflower, updated April 2025.
    Government fact sheet
    Small amount of research suggests oral passionflower might reduce anxiety and might improve total sleep time in insomnia. May be safe as a tea for up to 7 nights. Side effects include drowsiness, dizziness, confusion. May interact with anesthesia; should not be used during pregnancy.
    checked against the official page, 2026-10-21
  10. European Medicines Agency, HMPC. Community herbal monograph on Passiflora incarnata L., herba (EMA/HMPC/669740/2013).
    Regulatory monograph
    Traditional use for mild symptoms of mental stress and to aid sleep. Tea: 1–2 g in 150 ml boiling water, 1–4 times daily; adolescents and adults. Not recommended under 12 or in pregnancy/lactation for lack of data.
    checked against the official document, 2026-10-21
  11. European Medicines Agency, HMPC. European Union herbal monograph on Valeriana officinalis L., radix (EMA/HMPC/150848/2015).
    Regulatory monograph
    Traditional use for mild symptoms of mental stress and to aid sleep. Tea: 0.3–3 g in 150 ml boiling water; for sleep, half to one hour before bedtime (optionally an earlier dose in the evening); for stress up to 3 times daily. Not recommended under 12 or in pregnancy/lactation for lack of data.
    checked against the official document, 2026-10-21
  12. Morin et al. (2005). Valerian-hops combination and diphenhydramine for treating insomnia: a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Sleep.
    Human trial (randomized, double-blind, placebo) · form: extract
    184 adults with mild insomnia took valerian–hops extract tablets, diphenhydramine or placebo. The valerian–hops group showed modest subjective improvements; no group difference on polysomnography sleep measures.
    Limits: Tablets of standardized extracts, not tea. Tests hops only in combination with valerian.
    checked against the abstract, 2026-10-21 · PMID 16335333

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