Ashwagandha

A root from Ayurvedic medicine, taken above all for stress and sleep.

People take it for

Stress and anxiety
Sleep
Strength and exercise
Testosterone and hormones
Memory and focus
Menopause symptoms

A plain-English overview, not advice. Written from published reviews and trials and from what people say in public forums.

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What is ashwagandha?

Ashwagandha is the root of Withania somnifera, a nightshade shrub from the Indian subcontinent, also called winter cherry or Indian ginseng. Ayurvedic medicine has used it for thousands of years as a rasayana, or restorative herb. Its characteristic compounds are the withanolides, a family of plant steroids, and extracts are normally standardised to a stated percentage of them. It is sold as capsules of root extract, as a root-and-leaf extract, or as milled root powder, and its modern reputation is as an adaptogen: a plant taken in the hope of coping better with stress.

Why do people take ashwagandha?

Stress and anxiety

The thinking. Stress is the reason most people reach for ashwagandha, and its long use in Ayurveda is bound up with it. It is described as an adaptogen: the idea is less that it acts on a symptom, more that the body holds a steadier line under pressure.

What research has found. Five reviews have pooled randomised trials in adults, most of them stressed rather than ill, measuring questionnaire scores and the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol came out lower across the board; anxiety and stress scores fell in most reviews, though one found no change in how stressed people said they felt. A fair body of trials has looked at this, and most point the same way.

Sleep

The thinking. Sleep is the other everyday reason, usually in the evening and often the same people taking it for stress. The root has a long reputation for bringing on sleep, and the thinking is that a quieter stress response at bedtime makes it easier to drop off.

What research has found. Two randomised trials, one in healthy adults who slept badly and one running healthy volunteers alongside adults with insomnia, timed how long people took to fall asleep and how much of the night they spent asleep. Both found gains over placebo, largest in those sleeping worst. Research here is still young: a few studies so far, mostly pointing the same way.

Strength and exercise

The thinking. Ashwagandha has a following in gyms, taken alongside training rather than instead of it. The thinking runs two ways: a lighter load of stress hormone might leave more room to recover, and trials have reported more testosterone in men.

What research has found. Three reviews and two trials measured strength, endurance and body composition, mostly in young active adults and athletes. Endurance and maximum oxygen uptake came out higher on average, and bench press and squat loads rose in individual trials; a review of resistance training alone found those gains fragile under a stricter test. A reasonable number of trials have measured this, and most of them agree.

Testosterone and hormones

The thinking. Men in particular take ashwagandha for testosterone, and some take it with the idea of steadying their hormones more broadly. The thinking starts from the stress system: if the chain that releases cortisol settles, the hope is that the hormones governed alongside it settle too.

What research has found. One review pooled twenty-three placebo-controlled trials in over 1,700 adults: cortisol came out lower and testosterone higher in men, though not in women, with only a slight shift in thyroid hormones. A review in healthy adults found hormones moved but blood counts did not, and a safety trial found nothing altered at all. Studies here point in different directions, so this one is still being worked out; the dose, how long people took it and who took part all seem to matter.

Memory and focus

The thinking. A smaller group take ashwagandha for memory and concentration; Ayurvedic writing lists it as a nootropic, meaning something taken with study or work in mind. The thinking is partly the stress argument again, and partly the plant’s noted effects on the nervous system.

What research has found. Two reviews and a trial measured memory, attention, processing speed and the planning side of thinking, in a mixed group running from healthy young adults to older adults with mild memory problems. The larger, covering twenty studies and nearly 1,250 people, found small to moderate gains on each measure. This is one of the best-studied uses, and several reviews of trials broadly agree.

Menopause symptoms

The thinking. Women around the menopause have lately taken it up for the symptoms that come with it: hot flushes, broken sleep, low mood. The thinking is the familiar one, a herb with a reputation for calm in a stretch of life that unsettles sleep and mood.

What research has found. One eight-week randomised trial in a hundred women going through the perimenopause used standard symptom and quality-of-life questionnaires. Both improved against placebo, and oestrogen rose while the hormones that signal to the ovaries fell. Few studies have measured this yet, so there is little to go on either way.

What does ashwagandha do in the body?

Ashwagandha is not a nutrient the body runs short of; it is a plant with a mixture of active compounds in it. The main ones are the withanolides, a family of around three hundred plant steroids, of which two carry most of the attention. Reviews describe the root acting mainly on the stress axis: the chain of signals running from the brain to the adrenal glands that sets how much cortisol is released.

The same reviews point to effects on the nerve-signalling chemicals GABA and serotonin, on inflammation, and on the reactive molecules produced inside cells. They also say plainly that some of the root’s active compounds have not been identified yet, and that preparations differ so much that no agreed dose or extract has settled.

What do people say about taking ashwagandha?

These are anecdotes people have shared, not evidence.

What people like

Very commonly, feeling calmer and less on edge: anxiety settling, and being able to relax rather than run on high alert.
Often the reason is perimenopausal anxiety or low mood, and a few take it alongside HRT after checking the two sit together.
Some report better sleep or steadier energy, and a handful describe the change as large rather than subtle.
A minority have taken it daily for a year or more, with short breaks, and say the benefit has held.

Common complaints

Noticing nothing at all is very common: in every thread several people felt no difference, or too little to be sure of.
Feeling flat is the complaint that recurs most: blunted enthusiasm, low motivation or brain fog, usually after months of daily use.
Some get the opposite of what they hoped for, with anxiety rising within a day, low mood, headaches or an upset stomach.
A minority of women describe irregular bleeding, and worry about the liver and about long spells of use runs through the newer threads.

How people take it

A capsule or two a day, taken daily rather than only when stressed, is the usual pattern; several prefer the evening.
People very commonly say it takes about a fortnight of daily use before anything shows, so patience is the advice given most.
Some cycle it, a month or two on and a few weeks off, unsure about taking it long term.
It is often taken with something else, magnesium most commonly; a few take it as a tea rather than a capsule.

Read from these public discussions:

Ashwagandha (Mumsnet, 2023)
Ashwagandha and 5-HTP (Mumsnet, 2023)
Ashwagandha to help anxiety? (Mumsnet, 2024)
Ashwaganda supplements (Mumsnet, 2025)
AIBU to ask if ashwagandha is safe beyond three months? (Mumsnet, 2026)

What forms of ashwagandha are there?

Form	What’s different	Per serving, on products we list
KSM-66	A root-only extract, standardised to about 5 % withanolides.	500 mg to 600 mg
Sensoril	Made from root and leaf, and standardised to about 10 % withanolides.	not in our price tables yet
Shoden	Standardised to about 35 % withanolides, so a serving is roughly 120 mg.	not in our price tables yet
Root extract (unbranded)	An unbranded root extract; the withanolide percentage varies from label to label.	5 g
Root powder	Dried root milled to a powder rather than concentrated, so servings are larger.	not in our price tables yet

What else is worth knowing about ashwagandha?

Labels give the amount of extract per serving, and a serving may be more than one capsule; most also state the withanolide percentage it is standardised to.
Trials used standardised extracts at 120 mg to 1 g a day, for three to sixteen weeks; the more concentrated the extract, the smaller the serving.
No serious adverse events were reported in the reviews of healthy adults, and an eight-week safety trial found blood counts, liver measures and thyroid hormones unchanged.
Trials ran for weeks rather than years, and reviewers note that the longer-term effects have not been studied.

If you take medication, are pregnant, or have a health condition, check with a pharmacist or GP first.

The research behind this page (27 studies)

How much does ashwagandha cost?

That depends on the form and the pack, so we work out the price of the same dose of every ashwagandha product we can find and rank them.

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