While the search for natural means of getting sleep is a need, it seems that there is one that is causing nightmares rather than restful slumber. Valerian, a herbal sleep aid commonly used by those who want an alternative to prescription sedatives, has been linked to serious side effects.
Health Canada said it has received more than 30 reports of adverse reactions, including hallucinations and nightmares, linked to valerian from 2003 to 2008. The department also warned in a quarterly adverse-reaction newsletter that some medical studies have found an association between valerian and hallucinations, delirium and cardiac complications.
Such an occurrence has indeed been bad for the natural aids of getting sleep. But if there is some retraction on this claim it is that there is lack of proper statistics to be used for reference to which these claims can be backed up.
(Source) Globe and Mail
Yes, I totally agree. I don’t think I’ve ever had a nightmare – until I took Valerian. One night was enough. My wife then tried it & she too had a nightmare the one time she tried it.
I experienced hallucinations after drinking herbal tea with valerian. Scared the crap out of me. I’m really suprised that there isn’t more research on the negative side effects of valerian.
I had taken Valerian some time ago, and had experienced a very vivid nightmare, but decided to chalk it up to coincidence, casually mentioning it to the GF. It has been months since I have taken it, and I was struggling with sleep two nights ago. Took one 450mg capsule and it worked great, although when I woke up yesterday morning, I vaguely remember feeling a bit tense, as if I just had a dream, an intense one. But not enough to cause alarm, it’s a dream right? But I couldn’t directly relate the feeling to a dream, or for that matter, to the Valerian, so I ignored it.
I could sense I was going to have trouble sleeping again last night, and decided to try Valerian once more. This time, I took TWO 450mg capsules. I woke up after about 6 hours from a deep sleep with the same sensation, as though I had a dream, but no big deal. BUT THEN, I fell back to sleep for about two hours, and had THE MOST INTENSE nightmare I have ever had. It felt so real, that I thought it was happening and was panicking. I was in a flood, and couldn’t keep the water out of my house, but this was a flood like an apocalyptic flood, Tsunami type! Sounds exciting? It wasn’t.
I still can’t get over how intense and real it felt, and I would consider myself of sound mind and body. If I were to have lived a few hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago for that matter, I swear I would have thought the dream I had was a revelation from God and that I was his messenger and that my job now was to warn people about the coming flood that was going to wipe out humanity as we now know it. Call me Noah. Call me crazy. See you on the corner with my billboard hanging from my neck. The End is Nigh!
Feeling adventurous? Take two and call me in the morning.
I took triple the max. dose, but I experienced paranoia similar to being high. I thought a vacuum cleaner was a hunched black dog, was scared by a suitcase and thought something was coming out from under my bed. I couldn’t sleep until 6 am. I felt really good besides the hallucinations lol
I tried Valarian 3 times with quite a long time span between and each time I got very vivid and scary hallucinations. Never tried it since altho the people at the store I got it from say this doesn't happen. Take my word IT DOES!!
I take it often (practically every night), usually with a B complex as well, which is also supposed to cause lucid dreams, and well, I get them. Not as often as I’d like. Not even once a week. But when I do get them, they feel utterly undistinguishable from reality, like I’ve somehow tapped into a parallel universe. I’ve had them be incredibly intense, though not what I’d call a full blown nightmare. Many of them are based around being in bed. In one I was lying back to back with my wife. I could feel the warmth of her body. Then something lifted the flap of the covers on my side of the bed. It startled me awake, and I found I wasn’t lying in that position at all. Lots of little things like that. Having conversations with the wife that never happened, vivid hallucinations that felt easily as real as the waking state. I find it all extremely interesting. It actually makes me look forward to going to bed, and I’m experimenting with ways to trigger it more easily, and make it more intense.
I am so glad other people have had similar experiences with Valerian… I have recently been trying it out and twice it has given me the most vivid nightmares I’ve ever had. I’m not even totally sure if I was actually dreaming or hallucinating in real life… basically what happened was the setting of the dream was the same setting as real life, same house, same room, same time (night)… so basically when it began I didn’t know if I was dreaming or not… it wasn’t until I woke up that I realized I had been asleep because in the dream/nightmare/hallucination my mother had opened my bedroom door wide open and let my cat who sleeps with me out… and when I woke up my door was closed and my cat was totally asleep, nestled inbetween my legs at the foot of the bed. So if I had been moving around a lot my cat would not have been so soundly asleep when I woke up. But the dream… wow… it was so vivid and realistic… basically I dreamt that I was partially paralyzed and I was crawling around my house screaming for help, but all that came out were gargled sounds… it was as if I was having a slow, drawn out stroke… and my family members all came around and were trying to communicate with me but nothing was working…
Now that I’ve had two nightmares like this after taking Valerian I’m worried about taking more… but at the same time, I’m not one of those people who automatically think these side effects are totally negative… if the content of my dreams were fun, it would be amazing to have that extra vividness… so I’m going to keep taking Valerian and hope that if the negative dream happens I will be able to realize it while it’s happening and maybe control the dream to change it to something nicer. I noticed in my second nightmare that half way through it I pretty much knew what was happening and was telling everyone in the dream world that I had taken Valerian and thus wasn’t “all here right now” and the dream people just nodded as if I had taken magic mushrooms or something and was tripping out and that explained to them why I was behaving weirdly in the dreamworld.
But anyway Valerian is very strange and I’m very surprised that there are no warnings of these effects… are they really that rare?
I have taken capsules which contain a blend which includes Valerian, Hops Chammomile and Passionflower. Valerian obviously causes nightmares going on what other ppl are saying because I don’t get them all the time when I take the sleep-ezy but have them enough to draw a link. My girlfriend had sleep-ezy for the first time last night and I enquired and she also had a not one but a few different nightmares. Valerian causes nightmares. I might still take them as I’ve never heard of nightmares killing people.
Yeah I have tried valerian based tea drinks on and off and definitely notice a correlation between taking that before bed and nightmares. I took it a fair bit a year ago and stopped because i suspected nightmares. Recently iv been trying it again and they came straight back. Its not even proper nightmares – its more like i just wake up in the middle of the night really scared like I used to be as a kid after a bad dream when alone. Last night I thought I felt something on my leg and was too scared to open my eyes and look, was pretty intense lol. Even when I was properly awake and knew it was stupid I still felt very shaken and didnt dare get up and get a glass of water even though I wanted one badly. This was all from one cup of clipper sleep easy tea, which contains valerian.
I have also found the stuff makes me feel pretty chilled out when I have it a little before i go to sleep in a quite pleasant way – a tiny bit like weed and a tiny bit like alcohol. Iv found it a bit moreish too. Looking at its wikipedia page it supposedly has some similarities with benzodiazepine drugs, which is something I don’t completely understand but together with my experiences it makes me very wary about how valerian interacts with your brain. I would personally recommend avoiding it unless it provides some kind of relief for you.
“I took it a fair bit a year ago and stopped because i suspected nightmares” should read “I took it a fair bit a year ago and stopped because i suspected it was causing me to have nightmares.”
Valerian Tea:
I suffer from insomnia and have tried various herbal remedies to no avail- clipper sleep easy had no effect – tasted awful and only 5 % valerian root. Last night I tried a doctor Stewarts valerian tea, 20% Valerian, 15% hops and some other stuff. 20 minutes after consumption I felt my muscles and nerves relax almost exactly like I’d been injected with morphine. I must have fell asleep pretty quickly, but then in the middle of the night I became aware that something wasn’t right, I realised I was standing on my bed trying to pull my own body down from the ceiling where it seemed to be stuck by a big magnet. As soon as I realised I was awake and inside my body, it was not actually stuck to the ceiling I felt a bit confused but managed to lie down and go back to sleep. Woke up feeling really tired. A very odd out of body shamanistic experience. It wasn’t a nightmare and I didn’t feel scared but I am worried if I take it again I may get more sleeping hallucinations and could injure myself unknowingly. I have previously suffered with sleep paralysis and sleep walking so I think I’ll give it a miss and just put up with the sleepless nights just incase! For anyone who takes ages to fall asleep I’d really recommend it but just be warned it could cause weird sleep actions/walking episodes. Very similar to my experience of morphine in hospital.
i tried 2 nights in a row. severe severe severe nightmares. i NEVER have them, and will never touch this evil drug again
Valerian is crazy and im not going to take it anymore, two nights ago dreamed my mum had been murdered and last night there was a small asian boy that had been beaten in the head and limbs with massive rocks.
Ray, you want some mad lucid dreams why not try narcotics?