Does ashwagandha help with sleep? What the research does and doesn't show

The evidence doesn't support ashwagandha, in any form, as a treatment for insomnia. Two trials found improved sleep measures — one in a mix of healthy adults and people with diagnosed insomnia using an extract, one in elderly men with diagnosed insomnia using 6 g/day of root powder, well above a typical serving. Neither tested a general population at a lower amount.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support ashwagandha as a treatment for insomnia or any diagnosed sleep disorder, and it doesn't support the idea that a typical root-powder serving has been tested for sleep in a general healthy population — it hasn't. The trial that used root powder at the highest dose used 6 g a day, about 4.6 times a typical 1,300 mg/day root-powder serving, in elderly men already diagnosed with insomnia, not in general healthy adults taking a lower amount.

What the trials found

A 2020 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested an ashwagandha root extract in 80 adults — 40 healthy, 40 with diagnosed insomnia — over 8 weeks. Several sleep measures improved significantly versus placebo in both groups (how long it took to fall asleep, how efficiently they slept, and total sleep time), with a larger improvement in the group that had insomnia to begin with. The exact dose isn't confirmed from the published abstract, so no specific milligram figure can responsibly be repeated here.

A separate 2020 open-label study gave 6 g/day of ashwagandha root powder — whole root, not an extract, at close to 5 times a typical root-powder serving — to elderly men with diagnosed primary insomnia, for 30 days. Sleep quality, sleep disturbances and sleep efficiency all improved compared with each participant's own starting point, on a standard sleep-quality questionnaire. There was no placebo group in this study, so some of that improvement could reflect time, attention or expectation rather than the herb alone. A second arm combining the root powder with a nasal-oil treatment did noticeably better on every measure than root powder alone.

Between the two: an extract trial with a placebo group but an unconfirmed dose, and a root-powder trial with a confirmed but much higher dose and no placebo group. Nothing here isolates what a typical root-powder serving does for sleep in someone without a diagnosed sleep problem.

Questions people ask

Does ashwagandha make you sleep, or help you sleep?

Two trials found improved sleep measures — one with a placebo comparison and an unconfirmed dose, one at a much higher root-powder dose with no placebo comparison. Neither establishes what a lower, typical serving does for sleep in a healthy person without insomnia.

How much ashwagandha should I take for sleep?

There's no established dose for sleep at a general-population level. The root-powder trial above used 6 g/day, about 4.6 times a typical serving, in a population with diagnosed insomnia — that figure doesn't transfer to a lower dose or a different population.

When should I take ashwagandha for sleep?

Neither trial above tested a specific time of day against another. The root-powder trial gave it at night with milk; that's a detail of how the study was run, not evidence that timing changes the outcome.

Can ashwagandha cause insomnia, or keep you up?

No trial found for this page reports insomnia or difficulty sleeping as a side effect of ashwagandha. The commonly reported side effects are drowsiness, stomach upset and loose stools — drowsiness pointing the opposite direction from insomnia.

When to talk to a doctor

Insomnia that persists, or sleep problems that affect daily functioning, are worth discussing with a doctor — ashwagandha is not a treatment for insomnia or any other sleep disorder. Because ashwagandha can cause drowsiness, ask a doctor before combining it with a sedative, sleep medication or anything else with a sedating effect, and before use if you're pregnant, nursing, or on thyroid medication.

Related reading: ashwagandha benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, ashwagandha and medications: what to check, and root powder vs. extract, compared.