Does Ashwagandha Make You Sleepy? What the Trials Actually Show

Does ashwagandha make you sleepy? For most women, no, not in the way a sleeping pill does. Ashwagandha is not a sedative. In the trials it works slowly, over weeks, by taking the edge off stress, and the people it helps most with sleep are the ones who were sleeping badly to begin with. A small number of people do feel drowsy on it, especially early on or at higher doses. So the honest answer is "usually not, sometimes a little, and rarely the opposite."

That is a less exciting answer than the bedtime gummy packaging suggests. It is also the one the research supports. Here is what was measured, what was not, and how to tell which camp you are in.

What the sleep trials actually found

The best summary is a meta-analysis of 5 randomized trials in 400 adults. Ashwagandha extract had a small but real effect on overall sleep compared with placebo. The benefit was clearer in people diagnosed with insomnia, at doses of 600 mg a day or more, and when people took it for 8 weeks or longer (Cheah, 2021).

That pattern tells you a lot about the "sleepy" question. If ashwagandha simply knocked people out, you would expect a big effect on night one in everyone. Instead the effect is modest, builds over two months, and shows up mostly in people who had a sleep problem to fix.

One of the better individual trials randomized 60 people with insomnia and anxiety to 300 mg of root extract twice a day or a placebo for 10 weeks, and tracked their sleep with a wrist sensor rather than just asking them. By the end, the ashwagandha group fell asleep in about 29 minutes on average, compared with about 34 minutes on placebo. Sleep efficiency and sleep quality scores improved too (Langade, 2019). A five-minute difference after ten weeks is useful. It is not sedation.

We covered the wider stress and sleep evidence, including where it is weaker than it looks, in what the ashwagandha trials show for stress and sleep.

Does ashwagandha make you tired the next day?

This is the question most women are really asking, because nobody wants a supplement that leaves them foggy at 10am.

The trials that checked suggest it does not, at least on average. Several of them measured "mental alertness on rising," which is a simple rating of how clear-headed you feel when you wake up. In the pooled analysis, ashwagandha improved it compared with placebo (Cheah, 2021).

The detail is worth knowing. In an 8-week trial of 80 people, half healthy and half with insomnia, morning alertness improved significantly in the insomnia group. In the healthy sleepers it did not change significantly either way (Langade, 2020). So if you already sleep well, the best you can expect is no change. If you sleep badly, better nights may leave you sharper, not groggier.

That is a real difference from many over-the-counter sleep aids, where next-morning grogginess is a common complaint. It is also why "take it at night so the drowsiness does not bother you" is advice aimed at a problem most people will not have.

So why do some people feel drowsy on it?

Because some people do, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

A review of 30 human studies on ashwagandha root found that the most common side effects, each reported in more than 5 percent of people in the studies that listed them, were somnolence (sleepiness), stomach discomfort and loose stools. They were described as mild and mostly short-lived (Tandon, 2020).

A newer systematic review looked only at trials of single-ingredient, standardized root extract in healthy adults: 23 trials and 2,317 people, at doses from 125 to 600 mg a day. It found no serious side effects linked to ashwagandha. Mild ones, including passing drowsiness, were infrequent, and they showed up in the placebo and comparison groups as well as the ashwagandha groups (Coope, 2026). That last part matters. Some of the drowsiness people blame on the capsule would have happened anyway.

A few things make drowsiness more likely:

• A higher dose. Most trials used 300 to 600 mg of extract a day. Stacking two products, or a gummy plus a capsule, can push you well past that.
• Mixing it with other things that make you sleepy. Alcohol, antihistamines, sleep medicines and some anxiety medicines all add up. Ask your pharmacist before combining them.
• The type of product. Most supplements are root extracts. A mouse study found that a water extract of the leaves induced sleep, while an extract rich in withanolides, the compounds most root supplements are standardized for, did not (Kaushik, 2017). That was in mice, so it proves nothing about your capsule, but it is one reason two ashwagandha products can feel different.

Can ashwagandha keep you awake?

It can, but it is uncommon. The same 30-study review listed hyperactivity among the less common side effects people reported (Tandon, 2020). It did not give a rate, which tells you it was not frequent enough to measure well.

There is one cause worth ruling out if you suddenly feel wired, restless or have a racing heart. Ashwagandha can nudge thyroid hormone levels up. There is a published case of a healthy 32-year-old woman who developed an overactive thyroid while taking ashwagandha, which settled after she stopped (van der Hooft, 2005). Thyroid conditions are much more common in women, so if you already have one, or take thyroid medicine, talk to your doctor before starting. Our guide to how your thyroid shapes your energy and metabolism explains what to ask for.

Ashwagandha and vivid dreams

"Ashwagandha dreams" is a common search, and people online describe more vivid or memorable dreams after starting it. We could not find a trial that measured dreams at all. So there is no evidence that it causes vivid dreams, and no evidence that it does not. It simply has not been studied.

One plain explanation: you remember dreams when you wake up during or right after them. Anything that changes your sleep pattern, including a new supplement, stress, or night sweats in perimenopause, can change how many dreams you remember. If the dreams are disturbing or keep you up, that is a reason to stop, not to push through.

Should you take ashwagandha in the morning or at night?

No trial has compared morning with evening dosing head to head, so anyone who tells you there is a proven best time is guessing. What we do know:

• Several of the sleep trials split the dose, 300 mg twice a day, and still found better sleep without next-day grogginess (Langade, 2019).
• If your goal is sleep, taking it in the evening is a sensible choice.
• If it makes you drowsy, move it to the evening. If it makes you restless, move it to the morning.
• If it upsets your stomach, take it with food.

The most important thing is taking it at the same time every day, because the benefit in the trials came from weeks of steady use. If what you actually want is help falling asleep tonight, ashwagandha is the wrong tool. Our guide to getting the melatonin dose and timing right covers the option that works on a much shorter clock.

How long does it take for ashwagandha to work for sleep?

Think in months, not nights. The trials that found clear sleep benefits ran for 8 to 10 weeks (Cheah, 2021; Langade, 2019). If you have taken a reasonable dose every day for two months and your sleep has not changed, it is probably not going to.

When feeling tired is a warning sign

Almost all ashwagandha side effects are mild. The exception is rare but serious, and tiredness is one of its early signs. In a case series of five people who developed liver injury linked to ashwagandha supplements, symptoms appeared after 2 to 12 weeks and included jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), nausea, lethargy, itching and stomach discomfort. All of them recovered after stopping, but it took one to five months for their liver tests to return to normal (Björnsson, 2020).

So if you feel unusually tired together with itching, dark urine, pale stools, or any yellowing of your eyes or skin, stop taking it and see a doctor promptly.

Who should skip ashwagandha

• Anyone who is pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or breastfeeding. Most safety guidance, including from the NIH, advises avoiding it.
• Women with a thyroid condition or on thyroid medicine, unless their doctor agrees and checks their levels.
• Anyone with liver disease.
• Anyone taking sedatives, sleep medicine, or medicine for anxiety, blood pressure, blood sugar or immune conditions, without checking with a pharmacist first.

If you are tired all the time anyway

Many women start ashwagandha because they are exhausted, then wonder whether the supplement is the reason they still feel tired. Often it is neither the cause nor the cure. In midlife especially, broken sleep, low iron and thyroid changes are far more common reasons, and our piece on why perimenopause fatigue happens and what actually helps walks through what to check first.

If you are weighing ashwagandha for a different reason, our look at whether ashwagandha helps with weight loss covers what that research found. For more honest looks at popular supplements, see our supplements section.

The bottom line

Ashwagandha does not usually make you sleepy. It is a slow, modest stress and sleep aid, not a sedative. In the trials it did not leave people groggy the next morning, and poor sleepers often woke up clearer. A minority feel drowsy, usually mildly and early on, and a smaller number feel restless. If either happens, adjust the timing or the dose, and if tiredness comes with itching or yellowing, stop and see a doctor.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting any supplement, especially if you take medication, are pregnant, or have a thyroid or liver condition.

References

• Cheah KL, et al. Effect of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract on sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE. 2021. PMID: 34559859
• Langade D, et al. Efficacy and safety of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) root extract in insomnia and anxiety: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Cureus. 2019. PMID: 31728244
• Langade D, et al. Clinical evaluation of the pharmacological impact of ashwagandha root extract on sleep in healthy volunteers and insomnia patients: a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2020. PMID: 32818573
• Tandon N, Yadav SS. Safety and clinical effectiveness of Withania somnifera (Linn.) Dunal root in human ailments. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2020. PMID: 32201301
• Coope OC, et al. Back to the roots: safety and tolerability of standardised ashwagandha root extract in healthy adults. A systematic review of biomarkers and adverse events. Pharmaceuticals. 2026. PMID: 42198398
• Kaushik MK, et al. Triethylene glycol, an active component of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) leaves, is responsible for sleep induction. PLOS ONE. 2017. PMID: 28207892
• van der Hooft CS, et al. Thyrotoxicosis following the use of ashwagandha. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde. 2005. PMID: 16355578
• Björnsson HK, et al. Ashwagandha-induced liver injury: a case series from Iceland and the US Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network. Liver International. 2020. PMID: 31991029