Does Lemon Verbena Help Sleep? What the Trials Used

Lemon verbena has a reputation as an evening herb, and a quick search turns up studies that seem to link it to better sleep. Look closely and every one of them involves the same thing: a purified leaf extract swallowed in a capsule. The aroma of the essential oil, the thing we actually sell, was not what those volunteers were given, and that distinction is worth a few minutes of your time.

Lemon Verbena Essential Oil bottle

Lemon Verbena Essential Oil

Our own Lemon Verbena Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

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An extract, not an oil

Both sleep trials used a standardised leaf extract containing at least 24% verbascoside, a water-loving plant compound, in a 400 mg capsule. A 2018 review of the plant's chemistry notes that verbascoside is the most significant component of the extract, while neral and geranial are the main components of the essential oil (Bahramsoltani et al., 2018). So "does lemon verbena affect sleep?" really splits into two questions. The extract has a small amount of trial data. For the oil, we found none. Our oil is an external cosmetic oil, sold neat and not for internal use, so it is not a capsule ingredient either.

Why the confusion is so easy

It is not hard to see how the mix-up happens. The plant is called lemon verbena, the capsule is sold as lemon verbena, the tea is lemon verbena, and the bottle on our page is lemon verbena. Every one of them shares a name, and a headline only has room for the name. The things inside are very different, and a good habit is to stop at every "lemon verbena" and ask what form it is actually in.

This habit makes reading about plants a lot more enjoyable, too. Instead of wondering whether a claim is true, you start noticing exactly what was handed to whom, and the claim usually clears up by itself.

The 90-day trial

A Spanish randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial analysed 71 healthy adults with sleep disturbances, 33 taking the extract and 38 a placebo, for 90 days (Pérez-Piñero et al., 2024). On questionnaires the extract group scored better on overall sleep quality, time to fall asleep and sleep efficiency, and their night-time melatonin was higher. Sleep duration on the questionnaire and cortisol did not differ between groups. The authors list their own limits: a modest sample, a relatively short run, uncontrolled diet and a single cortisol sample. The study was funded by the company that supplied the extract, which also employs several of the authors. That does not make the results wrong. It does mean independent repetition would be welcome.

The smaller trial with a washout

A second trial randomised 40 adults to the same 400 mg capsule or a placebo for eight weeks, followed by four weeks off (Martínez-Rodríguez et al., 2022). Participants reported feeling better rested, and sleep stages were tracked with a consumer wristband, which the authors acknowledge is less precise than a laboratory sleep study. The extract again came from the same supplier, with company-affiliated authors on the paper. Small trials with consumer devices are a starting point, and larger independent trials would tell us more.

Why a scent is a different question

A capsule can be matched with a look-alike placebo. A scent cannot be hidden from the person smelling it, so a trial of an inhaled oil faces a harder design problem before it even starts. For aromatherapy in general, the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says that aromatherapy is sometimes used for insomnia, but that "we don't know whether it's helpful" because little rigorous research has been done (NCCIH, Aromatherapy). That statement covers oils in general, and it is not a verdict on ours.

Regulators draw the line in the same place. FDA lists claims that a product will "help you sleep" among drug claims, even for products marketed as aromatherapy (FDA, Aromatherapy). That is why we describe our oil by what we can stand behind: a bright, sweet, lemony aroma with a soft herbal-floral heart, steam-distilled from the leaves. Whether you enjoy that scent in the evening is a matter of taste, and entirely yours to decide.

What we do enjoy about the scent

None of this takes away the simple pleasure of the aroma. Open the bottle and you meet a sparkling, sweet lemon with a soft herbal-floral heart. Some people like to keep that kind of scent for the morning and the kitchen, and some for the end of the day in another room. That is a matter of taste, and we would rather leave it to you than hand you a schedule.

Four questions for any lemon verbena sleep claim

  1. Which material was tested? Oil, extract or tea. In these trials, extract.
  2. How many people, compared with what? Here, 71 analysed and 40 randomised, against a placebo capsule.
  3. Is the result against placebo or against the group's own start? The first is the stronger comparison.
  4. Who paid and supplied the material? In both trials, the extract maker.

If your own sleep troubles keep going, the person to talk to is a physician, who can look at causes no fragrance or capsule will reach. For the wider research picture, see our notes on stress and mood, our review of what the studies tested, and the difference between leaf and oil in tea versus essential oil. If you do diffuse it, diffusing it safely covers the practical side.

Lemon Verbena Essential Oil bottle

Lemon Verbena Essential Oil

Lemon Verbena Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $12.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading