Herbal Ashwagandha Improves Nonrestorative Sleep in Human Study

By Kyle J. Norton

Why sleep is so important? you might already know that a normal night of sleep is about eight hours as recommended by most doctors.

Why it is important, because during sleep our bodies repair the wear and tear of muscle tissue, consolidate memories, and release hormones to regulate our growth and appetites and enhance the immune system, etc.   sleep disorders can reduce the functions of the immune system in fighting against disease and sickness.

Nonrestorative sleep (NRS) is a condition in which the sleep has not been sufficiently refreshing or restorative upon waking, despite sleeping an adequate number of hours, accompanied by daytime impairment, pain, fatigue, and electroencephalogram (EEG) arousals in non-REM sleep in some patients.

In other words, NRS is a peripheral symptom of insomnia or as a feature of medical conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

* Insomnia 

Insomnia is a sign and symptom of sleep disorder in which a person has difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep or sleep of poor quality, including nonrestorative sleep, which can lead to substantial impairments in the quality of life and functional capacity of an individual. 

Most adults have experienced insomnia sometimes in their life. According to statistic, more than 30% of the population suffers from insomnia, one in three people suffer from some form of insomnia during their lifetime, and women suffer from insomnia more often than men.

* Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia, according to the American College of Rheumatology 1990 Criteria for the Classification of Fibromyalgia in the newly proposed criteria for the classification of fibromyalgia are 1) widespread pain in combination with 2) tenderness at 11 or more of the 18 specific tender point sites(a) as a result in responding to pressure.

* Chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a medical disorder that cannot be explained by an underlying medical condition, characterized by persistently extreme fatigue that never goes away regardless of treatment for at least 6 months.

The exact causes of chronic fatigue syndrome are unknown. However, some researchers suggested that the conditions are the results of viral infection and chronic stress syndrome.

Ashwagandha also is known as Withania somnifera is a nightshade plant in the genus of Withania, belonging to the family Solanaceae, native to the dry parts of India, North Africa, Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

The herbal medicine has been considered as Indian ginseng and used in Ayurvedic medicine over 3000 years to treat tumors and tubercular glands, carbuncles, memory loss, and ulcers and considered as anti-stress, cognition-facilitating, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging herbal medicine.

In the urgency to discover a natural ingredient for the treatment of sleep disorders, researchers examined the effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) on patients with nonrestorative sleep (NRS).
According to the Restorative Sleep Questionnaire-weekly version (RSQ-W) questionnaire and other test assays,  in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled interventional study in NRS population, a daily supplement of ashwagandha extract compared with placebo in subjects with NRS at 6 weeks from baseline, 

*  Exerted Anti-anxiety effects.

* Relieved insomnia and stress-induced depression.

* Reduced cortisol concentrations and the immunosuppressive effect of stress.

* Lowered  CRP by inhibiting the expression of pro-inflammatory responses in the body.

Taken altogether, Ashwagandha may be considered a therapy for the treatment of nonrestorative sleep (NRS), pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of turmeric in the form of supplements should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Study protocol and rationale for a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the effects of Ashwagandha (Withaniasomnifera) extract on nonrestorative sleep by Deshpande A, Irani N, Balakrishnan R. (PubMed)