Chamomile tea works well as a calming evening ritual. As a sleep aid the evidence is thin: in the only trial in 34 people with chronic insomnia, chamomile extract did no better than placebo. The positive studies used extract in capsules. Allergic to the daisy family or on blood thinners? Check first.
Is chamomile tea good for sleep? As a calming evening ritual, yes. As a sleep aid, the evidence is thin. The studies that found better sleep used concentrated extract in capsules and in chronic insomnia even that extract did no better than placebo.
I passed the claim on in my story: chamomile tea as a natural sleeping pill. Then I read the studies.
Does chamomile work in humans the way it works in mice?
Chamomile contains apigenin. In the lab, that compound binds to the same receptor as calming medication. In mice, a low dose produced an anxiety-reducing effect without drowsiness. Sedation only appeared at a dose ten times higher.
Sounds impressive. Except it was measured in a petri dish and in animals.
Source: Viola et al.1 1995, Planta Medica
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Does chamomile help against insomnia?
In humans the picture looks different. In the only trial on chronic insomnia, 34 participants took 270 mg of chamomile extract twice a day for four weeks. Not a single outcome differed from placebo.
An analysis of twelve studies did find better sleep quality. A more recent analysis of ten studies with 772 participants mainly found fewer awakenings. How long and how efficiently people slept did not change. Only one of those studies checked what was actually in the product.
One of the few studies with actual tea, in 80 women who had just given birth, saw better sleep after two weeks. Four weeks later the effect was gone.
Source: Zick et al.2 2011, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Hieu et al.4 2019, Phytotherapy Research; Kazemi et al.5 2024, Complementary Therapies in Medicine; Chang & Chen3 2015, Journal of Advanced Nursing
How much chamomile do you need and when do you take it?
If you want to lean on the studies, look at capsules. In 60 older adults in a care home, sleep improved with 200 mg of chamomile extract twice a day for four weeks. The study was single-blind and the control group got capsules filled with wheat flour.
A cup of tea is an infusion of a few grams of flowers. Your body absorbs only a fraction of the apigenin in it. Nobody has ever established an amount of tea that works. The best time of day has never been compared either.
If you drink it as a ritual, do it at the same moment every evening, because a fixed evening ritual tells your brain the day is over. One cup well before you lie down is enough. A big mug right before bed is more likely to get you up at night, see salt and night-time urination.
Source: Adib-Hajbaghery & Mousavi6 2017, Complementary Therapies in Medicine; Zick et al.2 2011, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Can everyone drink chamomile tea?
For most people chamomile is safe. A review of 72 trials with 2896 users mainly found mild stomach and gut complaints and drowsiness, which went away on their own.
Chamomile belongs to the daisy family, together with mugwort and ragweed. People allergic to those plants can also react to chamomile. Of 14 people with a positive allergy test to chamomile, 10 had already had an immediate reaction, sometimes life-threatening. Eleven of them also reacted to mugwort.
The second group takes blood thinners. A 70-year-old woman on warfarin was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding after chamomile tea and a chamomile lotion. In 12 healthy volunteers, nine tea bags a day did not change blood clotting, so the risk lies in the combination with medication. In that case, ask your doctor or pharmacist first. There is too little data on pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Source: Ostovar et al.7 2025, Complementary Therapies in Medicine; Reider et al.8 2000, Clinical & Experimental Allergy; Segal & Pilote9 2006, Canadian Medical Association Journal; Schwartz et al.10 2023, Perioperative Medicine
A cup of tea or a supplement is the finishing touch for me. Most of your sleep comes down to your structure.
Go to bed around the same time every day. Keep your phone out of the bedroom. No more caffeine in the six hours before sleep. First thing in the morning, step outside into daylight for a moment.
You need neither a tracker nor fancy supplements. Stick to the basics. And that cup of chamomile? Go ahead and drink it. As a ritual.
Want to know what magnesium actually does and how much glycine a bisglycinate tablet really holds? That is in magnesium and sleep.
| Form | What was studied | What you have at home | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concentrated extract | Capsules, twice a day, four weeks | Rarely at home | The form most studied in humans |
| Chamomile tea | A few small studies, including women who had just given birth | An infusion of a few grams of flowers | Works mostly as an evening ritual |
As an evening ritual, yes. As a sleep aid the evidence is thin: in chronic insomnia, chamomile extract did no better than placebo. The studies that found better sleep quality mostly used extract in capsules.
That has never been established. The capsule study in older adults that did find better sleep gave 200 mg of extract twice a day for four weeks. A cup of tea is an infusion of a few grams of flowers and cannot be compared with that.
No study has compared times. Drink it at the same moment every evening as part of your evening ritual. Preferably not right before you lie down, so you do not have to get up for it at night.
People allergic to mugwort or other plants in the daisy family can also react to chamomile, sometimes badly. If you take blood thinners, ask your doctor or pharmacist first. There is too little data on pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Timon offers High Performance 1:1 Health Coaching, wherever you live. Coaching clients can also train with him in person in Ghent, Belgium.
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Every number in this article was checked against the original publication.
This article is information, not medical advice. If you have symptoms, are pregnant or take medication, talk to your doctor before changing anything.
A pinch of salt before bed does not help against night-time urination. In 223 people who ate less salt, night-time urination fell from 2.3 to 1.4 times a night. What also helps: looking at what you drink across the day and not staying in bed longer than you need. Regularly up twice or more? Get it checked.
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Pick an organic form such as bisglycinate or citrate, stay under 250 mg a day from supplements and take it at the same time every day. In a double-blind trial, magnesium oxide was absorbed no better than a placebo. And the effect on sleep is small. That it works mainly in people who get too little is plausible. It has not been proven.
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