Introduction:The World Health Organization's 2004 Global Burden of Disease report indicated 3.6 million years of productive, healthy life is lost worldwide as a result of primary insomnia. Approximately 30–35% of people meet diagnostic criteria for primary insomnia characterized by impairment resulting from problems of falling and staying asleep.Aims:To evaluate the effect of Tagara (Valeriana wallichii DC.) and Jatamansi (Nardostachys jatamansi DC.) in the management of Anidra.Materials and Methods:A total of 34 patients were selected fulfilling the criteria for inclusion for primary insomnia were randomly selected from Out Patient Department and In Patient Department of Manasa Roga and assigned into two groups, wherein 30 patients completed the study (15 in each). Tagara Churna (powder of V. wallichii) and Jatamansi Churna (powder of N. jatamansi) in the dose of 4 gm with milk was administered three times a day for a period of 1 month.Results:Tagara provided significant improvement in initiation of sleep (76.00%; P < 0.001), duration of sleep (55.17%; P < 0.001), disturbed sleep (69.58%; P < 0.001), and disturbances in routine work (73.95%; P < 0.001). Jatamansi provided improvement in initiation of sleep (61.34%; P < 0.001), duration of sleep (48.25%; P < 0.001), disturbed sleep (53.08%; P < 0.001), and disturbance in routine works (43.85%; P < 0.001).Conclusion:Both the groups showed good results, but Tagara group showed better results in comparison to Jatamansi group.

The present study was undertaken to evaluate Tagara and Jatamansi for certain CNS activities to ascertain the basis for their use as a sedative and hypnotics. The drugs were evaluated for hypnotic and sedative, anti anxiety, anti depressant and anti psychotic activities using standard experimental protocol. The data generated suggests that the test drugs Tagara and Jatamansi have complex CNS activity profile which is not easy to categorize under general CNS activity profile. Both possess significant anti-anxiety activity without significant sedative-hypnotic activity. This increases their utility for the patients suffering from anxiety due to sleep disturbances.