Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2015, Article ID 105256, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/105256
Updates on Nutraceutical Sleep Therapeutics and Investigational Research
1University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
2Middlebury College, 14 Old Chapel Road, Burlington, VT 05753, USA
3Veterans Administration, 400 Fort Hill Avenue, Canandaigua, NY 14424, USA
Received 26 May 2015; Accepted 1 July 2015
Academic Editor: Karen Nieber
Copyright © 2015 Michael Yurcheshen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Approximately 50% of the population will suffer from a sleep disorder over the course of their lifetime. There is increasing interest in nutraceuticals for these conditions. The quality of the evidence for the safety and effectiveness of using these supplements to treat sleep disorders varies substantially. In this review, we discuss the data about the effectiveness and safety of six commonly used plant-based sleep therapeutics: caffeine, chamomile, cherries, kava kava, L-tryptophan, marijuana, and valerian. We explore both historical uses of each substance and the current state of the literature.