Valerian Root and medications.
Valerian Root is in the Distil supplement database, evidence Grade B. The page below lists every medication we have explicitly assessed it against.
Valerian root is a herbal sleep aid taken as a standardised extract, usually 300 to 600mg about half an hour to an hour before bed. It is thought to work on the GABA system, the same calming pathway many sedatives use, which is a different mechanism from melatonin (which shifts the body clock) or magnesium glycinate. The evidence sits at Grade B: meta-analyses by Bent in 2006 and Fernández-San-Martín in 2010, pooling well over a thousand people, suggest valerian may shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and modestly improve sleep quality. The honest limit is that trial quality varies and the effect is not dramatic. It tends to complement other sleep supports rather than replace them, and it pairs well with lemon balm for anxiety-related sleep problems. The interaction that matters: valerian adds to the sedating effect of benzodiazepines, other CNS depressants and alcohol, so flag those to a prescriber. Not for continuous use beyond four to six weeks without a break.
Below are the 12 documented pairs we have explicitly assessed for Valerian Root: 12 amber. The pairs cluster around 2 mechanisms: Additive CNS sedation and Additive CNS depression. Every call is cited to either a clinical reference (PMID) or the British National Formulary. Anything not listed here is either still to be assessed or beyond our database scope. The checker beneath surfaces assessments by medication, and the missing-item form at the bottom of the page routes any uncatalogued medication into our next curation pass.
Documented interactions
Last reviewed 22 June 2026. Each interaction below lists the evidence its assessment drew on: some rest on studies of the exact pair, others on mechanism evidence, where a citation may support one part of the reasoning rather than the exact combination. The evidence line on each entry says which.
Additive CNS sedation
Amber Does interact with Clonidine?
Valerian can make you drowsy, and clonidine commonly causes drowsiness and tiredness too. Taken together they may add to the sedation and slow your reactions more than either alone. Use with care, particularly around driving or operating machinery, and especially in the first weeks.
Evidence: Based on an established mechanism, with no direct study of this exact combination yet.
Reviewer-flagged: awaiting clinical-reviewer sign-off.
Amber Does interact with Guanfacine?
Valerian can make you drowsy, and guanfacine commonly causes drowsiness and tiredness too. Taken together they may add to the sedation and slow your reactions more than either alone. Use with care, particularly around driving or operating machinery, and especially in the first weeks.
Evidence: Based on an established mechanism, with no direct study of this exact combination yet.
Reviewer-flagged: awaiting clinical-reviewer sign-off.
Additive CNS depression
Amber Does interact with Alprazolam?
Valerian and alprazolam both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Combining them can mean stronger drowsiness, slower reaction time, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Chlordiazepoxide?
Valerian and chlordiazepoxide both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Combining them can mean stronger drowsiness, slower reaction time, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Diazepam?
Valerian and diazepam both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Combining them can mean stronger drowsiness, slower reaction time, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Lorazepam?
Valerian and lorazepam both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Combining them can mean stronger drowsiness, slower reaction time, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Nitrazepam?
Valerian and nitrazepam both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Both are used around sleep, so combining them can mean deeper-than-intended sedation and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving the next morning.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Oxazepam?
Valerian and oxazepam both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Combining them can mean stronger drowsiness, slower reaction time, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Temazepam?
Valerian and temazepam both promote sedation through overlapping pathways. Both are used for sleep; combining them can mean deeper-than-intended sedation and a heavier morning hangover.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Zaleplon?
Valerian and zaleplon both promote sleep through overlapping pathways. Both are taken for sleep, so combining them can mean deeper-than-intended sedation, slower reactions, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving the next morning.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Zolpidem tartrate?
Valerian and zolpidem both promote sleep through overlapping pathways. Both are taken for sleep, so combining them can mean deeper-than-intended sedation, slower reactions, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving the next morning.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
Amber Does interact with Zopiclone?
Valerian and zopiclone both promote sleep through overlapping pathways. Both are taken for sleep, so combining them can mean deeper-than-intended sedation, slower reactions, and a heavier morning hangover than either gives on its own. Use with care, particularly around driving the next morning.
Evidence: Limited human data, based on case reports and a known mechanism.
What this list does not say. Pairs not flagged here are not implicitly safe. They are either not yet in our database, or fall outside our inclusion scope. Use the checker below to surface any medication, and submit a missing item if you take something we have not catalogued.
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How we grade severity, choose what's in scope, and what we exclude.
Every call on this page is reasoned. We publish the full rubric for severity tiers, the medication inclusion logic, the evidence grades we accept, and what we deliberately leave out. About three thousand words. Worth reading once if you use this tool more than occasionally.
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The free checker answers one interaction question at a time. A Distil report reviews the bigger picture: your goals, diet, medications, current supplements and any blood results you provide, then shows what appears worth keeping, changing, adding or leaving out.
- what your diet already covers, so you are not adding a capsule for something food is already handling
- which evidence-graded compounds are worth considering for your goals, and which were considered but left out
- what to keep, change or stop from what you already take, plus the order to introduce anything new
- how your medications and complete supplement stack fit together, with daily timing and a clear point for reassessment
The interaction check is one section of the full report. You also get the reasoning behind each recommendation and the evidence references used.
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