Effects of an intervention with drinking chamomile tea on sleep quality and depression in sleep disturbed postnatal women: a randomized controlled trial

Aim. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of chamomile tea on sleep quality, fatigue and depression in postpartum women. Background. Sleep quality is a significant issue for postnatal women. Chamomile is widely used as a folk remedy for its presumed sedative-hypnotic effects. Design. A pretest-post-test randomized controlled trial was used. Methods. A total of 80 Taiwanese postnatal women with poor sleep quality (Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale; PSQS score. 16) were recruited from November 2012-August 2013. They were systematically assigned, with a random start, to either the experimental group (n = 40) or the control group (n = 40). The participants in the experimental group were instructed to drink chamomile tea for a period of 2 weeks. The participants in the control group received regular postpartum care only. The PSQS, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and Postpartum Fatigue Scale were used to assess outcomes. Two-sample t-tests were used to examine the mean differences in outcome variables between the two groups. Results. Compared with the control group, the experimental group demonstrated significantly lower scores of physical-symptoms-related sleep inefficiency (t = - 2.482, P = 0.015) and the symptoms of depression (t = -2.372, P = 0.020). However, the scores for all three instruments were similar for both groups at 4-week post-test, suggesting that the positive effects of chamomile tea were limited to the immediate term. Conclusion. Chamomile tea may be recommended to postpartum women as a supplementary approach to alleviating depression and sleep quality problems.