Efficacy of Topical Herbal Remedies for Insomnia in Iranian Traditional Medicine

Background: Insomnia is one of the most prevalent sleep disorders which affect the quality of life. Due to high prevalence of this disease and the side effects of sedative drugs, people tend to use herbal remedies. There are some oral or topical prescriptions in Persian medicine texts for the treatment of insomnia. The aim of this study was to investigate topical treatments for insomnia in Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) and comparing them with current therapies in modern medicine. Materials and Methods: In this study, ITM textbooks including the Canon of Medicine, Teb‑e‑Akbari, Kholasat al‑Hekmah, Makhzan al‑Advieh, Exir‑e‑azam, Al‑Aghraz al‑Tibbia, Val Mabahess al‑Alaiia, Sharh-al-Asbab-val-Alamat, Tohfa‑al‑Momen, and Qarabadeen‑e‑Kabir were searched to investigate effective topical therapies for treating insomnia. Further, relevant studies on these topical remedies were searched at databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and ScienceDirect from the beginning till June 2018 and the results were presented as tables. Results: There are some herbs which have been recommended in ITM for the treatment of insomnia in topical dosage form such as ointment, lotion, nasal drop, and oil. The most important herbs used in these topical dosage forms were lettuce, violet, almond, pumpkin, and water lily. Some of these herbal therapies including lettuce and violet have been studied in clinical trial for insomnia. Conclusion: Findings of the present study showed that according to ITM texts, there are some effective topical herbal remedies which can be used in treatment of insomnia with less adverse effects.