Valerian
The Essentials
Take it nightly for about two weeks before deciding whether it works. It isn't a one-dose remedy.
Read the whole guide on one page →It's stronger than passionflower and can leave some people heavy-headed in the morning.
The smell is genuinely unpleasant. That's normal and not a sign of a bad product.
Valerian is one of the few sleep herbs with a genuine place in classical Persian medicine, where it's called sonbol-ot-tib. Avicenna wrote about it for nervous complaints and pain. The modern picture is honest but messy: several trials show that people feel they fall asleep more easily and sleep better, but measurements in a sleep lab often show much less change than the person's own impression. Reviews call the evidence modest and inconsistent. Valerian also takes time — most traditional and modern practice expects two weeks of nightly use before you judge it.
Known to botanists as Valeriana officinalis.