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There are many Chinese herbs and foods that help insomnia.If you have sleep problems that are not helped by conventional medicines, it won't hurt to give the following a try.
Lily Bud. It is the dried flower bud of 2 common Chinese lilies (Hemerocallis fulva and H. flava), long used in Chinese cooking, especially in vegetarian dishes. Known in Chinese as jinzhencai ("gold-needle vegetable"), xuancaohua, and huanghuacai ("yellow-flower vegetable"), it is also called wangyoucao, meaning "forget-about-worrying herb." Also known in Cantonese as gum jum choy, lily bud is readily available in Chinese food stores or herb shops in America. Besides being commonly used as a food, it is well-known as a brain tonic and is used medicinally to relieve anxiety and as a sleep aid.4,6 After being thoroughly rehydrated in water and discarding the bitter-tasting liquid, lily buds can be cooked with chicken or lean pork along with other vegetables. Or if you don't mind the taste (slightly bitter and sour), after first rehydrating it in water and discarding this water, you can simply boil it in water for 20 to 30 minutes and drink the liquid as a tea, adding sugar or other sweetener to taste if necessary. The normal amount to use is 1 ounce per day an hour before bedtime. It may take a few days to take effect.
Lily bud has recently been reported to have sedative effect in mice.7 Although hardly a scientific "proof," this seems to offer some rationale behind its traditional use as a sleep aid.
Sour Jujube Kernel (Ziziphus spinosa). This is probably the most commonly used herb in Chinese herbal sedative and hypnotic formulas.5 It contains a wide range of chemical components, including flavonoids, glycosides, triterpenes, alkaloids, sterols, fatty acids, cyclic AMP, cyclic GMP, and others. Its flavonoid glycosides (spinosin, swertisin, and zivulgarin), alkaloids, and the triterpene glycosides (jujubosides A and B) all have been shown to have sedative effects in animals. It is probably the combined, balanced effects of these active components that have enabled sour jujube kernel to be safely and effectively used for over 2,000 years. The easiest way to use this sleep aid is to finely mill the seeds in a coffee grinder and sprinkle half a teaspoonful (~2 g) of it in your food or drink, whatever that may be, taken an hour before bedtime. The daily dosage is normally 2 to 15 g (one-fifteenth to half an ounce), depending on the individual, with the higher dosage more commonly used in cooking or in teas.
