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Valerian has been commonly used at least since the era of the Ancient Greeks and in Indian Ayurvedic medicine to treat a number of disorders including nausea, problems with the urinary tract and also many digestive problems. However, it has also been used throughout history, including today, to relieve insomnia and help people to relax. It is a tranquilizer and helps those that take it to enjoy a deep and relaxing sleep in spite of their noisy neighbors.

Valerian has also been used by Native Americans for healing wounds, by the Europeans to help them sleep and as a decongestant, an anti-convulsant and also to help support the immune system and build healthy bones and joints. However, it is for its soporific properties for which valerian root has found universal application, and why it was the herbal remedy of choice for medieval physicians and even individuals to cure insomnia or promote sleep where it was difficult due either to illness or noisy neighbors! Yes, they had these in the Dark Ages as well!

During the medieval period of European history, sleepless nights (and sleepless knights!) were dealt with by using the soporific effects of the root of a hardy perennial plant known as valerian, or Valeriana officinalis. Today, valerian is used as a herbal alternative to benzodiazepines (e.g. Valium) to treat stress, excitability, anxiety, restlessness and nervous tension in addition to being an OTC remedy for sleeplessness

In fact, prior to the days of modern medicine and substances such as diazepams and benzodiazepine, valerian was the herbal remedy of choice for the vast majority of such conditions. Every household would have a valerian root extract to help the master or mistress of the house to sleep when things got a little rowdy outside - something not uncommon during that period of European history.

In the USA it is now offered for sale as a nutritional supplement, enabling it to sidestep the FDA regulatory requirements that may otherwise have required definitive proof of its effects through carefully recorded and managed testing. If you have sleepless nights, then you can safely do what your forebears of the early centuries after the Dark Ages did, and use valerian root - it was very effective then with sleepless knights, and is just as effective with your own sleepless nights! But don't give it to your children because they should be given no sedatives without your doctor's permission!