Efficacy and safety of ashwagandha root extract in the treatment of insomnia, anxiety and reducing stress – literature review

Abstract

Insomnia, anxiety and stress are common complaints of people living today. Together, these factors can significantly reduce the quality of people's lives and disrupt relationships. Insomnia is a health problem connected with the difficulty falling asleep, waking early, waking during sleep, or poor quality of sleep, the consequences of which during the day are a feeling of being fatigue, reduced well-being, irritability, impaired concentration and learning ability. Anxiety is an emotional state related with anticipation of danger coming from the outside or coming from inside the organism, manifesting itself as feeling of uneasiness, tension, embarrassment, threat. Stress is a disturbance of body homeostasis caused by a physical or psychological factor.

The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of  ashwagandha root extract in the treatment of insomnia, anxiety and reducing stress. Our study material consisted of publications, which were found in PubMed, ResearchGate and Google Scholar databases. In order to find the proper publications, the search has been conducted with the use of a combination of key words like: ''ashawagandha'', ''insomnia'', ''anxiety'', ''stress". The first step was to find proper publications from the last 5 years. The second step was to carry out an overview of the found publications.

Currently a lot of researches is being conducted to find natural substances that are just as effective as pharmacotherapy in the treatment of insomnia, anxiety and reducing stress, but without the side effects. Some researchers have focused their attention to the ashwagandha root extract.  Results of mentioned studies proved the efficacy and safety of ashwagandha root extract. However, further research is needed to estabilish the role of ashwagandha root extract in the treatment of insomnia, anxiety and reducing stress.