Condition
Insomnia
Difficulty falling or staying asleep despite adequate opportunity, with daytime impact.
See a clinician
Some causes of insomnia need medical care, not self-treatment. Seek help for any of these:
- Loud snoring, gasping, or witnessed pauses in breathing (possible sleep apnea)
- Insomnia with low mood or thoughts of self-harm — seek help promptly
What may help
Remedies studied for insomnia, ranked by strength of evidence.
- B Ashwagandha herb
Standardized root extract (≥600 mg/day) modestly improves overall sleep quality and shortens time to fall asleep, with larger gains in diagnosed insomnia.
- B Melatonin supplement
Modestly shortens time to fall asleep and improves sleep quality; best for circadian/timing problems.
- C Glycine supplement
A small crossover study found 3 g before bed improved subjective sleep quality and shortened time to fall asleep on polysomnography; evidence rests on a few small studies.
- C L-theanine supplement
Around 200 mg/day modestly improves subjective sleep quality and sleep latency; effects on objective sleep are inconsistent and many positive trials used combination products.
- C Magnesium nutrient
May modestly shorten time to fall asleep in older adults; low-certainty evidence.
- C Passionflower herb
Small trials show modest short-term sleep benefit (slightly more total sleep time, better self-rated quality), with most objective measures no better than placebo.
- C Tart cherry supplement
Tart cherry juice — a natural source of melatonin — produced small improvements in sleep time and efficiency in small crossover trials.
- C
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is first-line. Melatonin has the most consistent (if modest) evidence, especially for circadian/timing problems; valerian and magnesium are weaker.