Effects of Neurapas® balance on sleep EEG, cognitive performance and mood: A double-blind randomised cross-over study in healthy volunteers

Almost all drugs for treating insomnia in depression improve sleep, but worsen cognitive performance (CP). Phytotherapeutics, such as St. John’s, valerian and passion flower, improve depression, anxiety (St. John’s wort, passion flower) and sleep (valerian) without affecting CP. Neurapas® balance (NB) is a triple combination of these extracts, which is widely used for treating minor depression in Germany. In this study, we tested the effect of NB on sleep-EEG, mood and CP in order to evaluate central nervous effects of NB in volunteers. 20 healthy subjects were examined twice in a double-blind, randomized cross-over design and received either placebo or NB. Dependent variables were sleep-EEG parameters, mood (BSKE), vegetative symptoms (MSKL) and CP-tests. The results revealed that NB reduced wakefulness, REM-latency and NonREM-sleep in the first sleep cycle, which was compensated by an increase of NonREM-sleep in the second cycle.. Positive trend effects of NB were found for the items, mental agitation and melancholy (BSKE), hand-trembling and hand-moisture (MSKL). No differences between NB and placebo were detected in CP-tests. These findings show that Neurapas® balance has central nervous effects as reflected by changes in sleep EEG. Furthermore, sleep continuity and subjective mood were improved without negative effects on CP. These findings indicate that Neurapas® balance® has neurophysiological effects on the brain and improves mood even in healthy subjects.