Should I take Ashwagandha in the Morning or Night?

Ashwagandha is one of the best nootropics for mood, stress and general anxiety. However it does have several other uses which can vary depending on what time of the day you take it.

Why? Because Ashwagandha is an adaptogen. An adaptogen is essentially a nutrient which works with your body’s needs depending on what condition you’re in. In some cases Ashwagandha has been seen to energize the fatigued – and in others it has been able to relax the stressful.

Most people benefit from taking Ashwagandha in the morning due to needing that early morning lift to start their day, but there’s numerous benefits you can get from taking this supplement at night too.

In this article, we’ll be answering the question “Should I take Ashwagandha in the Morning or Night?”, complete with our opinion.

Should I take Ashwagandha in the Morning?

Yes, taking Ashwagandha in the morning can help with problems such as anxiety and high blood sugar.

Reason #1 for taking Ashwagandha in the morning: Anxiety

Depending on your lifestyle, anxiety can hit pretty hard in the morning.

Picture the scene: It’s just before work, you’re thinking about everything you have to do that day, you’ve still got to push through your busy commute, and to top it all off you’re running on an empty stomach and a mug full of coffee (a.k.a. anxiety fuel).

There’s a lot going on. Taking something like Ashwagandha may help take the edge off. Research has shown that supplementing Ashwagandha for a 6 week period helped reduce anxiety in 88% of participants compared a placebo group. [1]

Other research also shows participants who took 600 mg of Ashwagandha on a daily basis for 60 days had greatly reduced scores on a stress test compared to other participants who were on a placebo. [2]

Reason #2 for taking Ashwagandha in the morning: High Blood Sugar

Not that this compares to actual medicine, but Ashwagandha can offer some natural benefit to helping lower blood sugar levels.

Research has seen participants using Ashwagandha for 30 days reduce their overall levels of blood sugar with consistent supplementation. [3]

With food throughout the day, your blood sugar levels can peak and drop by how your body releases insulin into your system. Ashwagandha may help to keep them more stable.

Having stable blood sugar levels can offer various benefits including:

Better mood
Less fatigue
More energy
Better brain and blood vessel health

Tweaks and changes to your diet can also help this along, for example not putting sugar in your coffee and going easy on treats like candy can help keep you blood sugar from skyrocketing without intention.

Related: What foods contain Citicoline?

Should I take Ashwagandha in the Night?

Yes, Ashwagandha can help with sleep, and overnight recovery.

Reason #1 to take Ashwagandha at night: Sleep

As we’ve mentioned, Ashwagandha can help fight anxiety, but it can also help to reduce your body’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Cortisol is what your body releases into your system when you are stressed. It helps your body to respond to stresses, however, when your cortisol levels are high, it can be harder for you to get to sleep.

Ashwagandha has been seen in several cases to help reduce your body’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol [4], which may make it easier for you to fall asleep if you’re taking it at night.

Reason #2 to take Ashwaganda at night: Recovery

Ashwagandha has been seen in various cases to help promote testosterone, as well as well as muscle mass and size.

In an 8 week study, participants supplemented 300 mg of Ashwagandha twice a day, whereas another group took the equivalent in a placebo.

During the 8 week period, the Ashwagandha group saw gains in muscle mass, fat loss, muscle size and even testosterone levels [5].

Not only that, there’s another case of 75 men with infertility using Ashwagandha on a daily basis and seeing great results. They enjoyed higher levels of testosterone, as well as better quality seminal fluid [6].

We say that you should be using Ashwagandha for these purposes in the night, because your body does most of it’s hormonal regulation and recovery overnight. Your testosterone levels are at their highest while you’re sleeping, and giving it Ashwagandha before bedding down may help improve and facilitate that process for maximum effect.

Should I take Ashwagandha in the Morning or Night? … It depends.

Taking Ashwagandha in the morning vs taking it in the night does have significant differences depending on what you want to get out of it.

If you’re looking for something to help keep you cool, calm and collected during working hours and not fly off the chain with some blood sugar crashes – it may be the morning option for you.

However, if you’re struggling to sleep due to stress, or looking to pack on some muscle mass – it could be an evening supplement for you.

References:

[1] Andrade C, Aswath A, Chaturvedi SK, Srinivasa M, Raguram R. A double-blind, placebo-controlled evaluation of the anxiolytic efficacy ff an ethanolic extract of withania somnifera. Indian J Psychiatry. 2000;42(3):295-301.

[2] Chandrasekhar K, Kapoor J, Anishetty S. A prospective, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of safety and efficacy of a high-concentration full-spectrum extract of ashwagandha root in reducing stress and anxiety in adults. Indian J Psychol Med. 2012;34(3):255-262. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.106022

[3] Andallu B, Radhika B. Hypoglycemic, diuretic and hypocholesterolemic effect of winter cherry (Withania somnifera, Dunal) root. Indian J Exp Biol. 2000;38(6):607-609.

[4] Lopresti AL, Smith SJ, Malvi H, Kodgule R. An investigation into the stress-relieving and pharmacological actions of an ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019;98(37):e17186. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000017186

[5] Wankhede S, Langade D, Joshi K, Sinha SR, Bhattacharyya S. Examining the effect of Withania somnifera supplementation on muscle strength and recovery: a randomized controlled trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:43. Published 2015 Nov 25. doi:10.1186/s12970-015-0104-9

[6] Ahmad MK, Mahdi AA, Shukla KK, et al. Withania somnifera improves semen quality by regulating reproductive hormone levels and oxidative stress in seminal plasma of infertile males. Fertil Steril. 2010;94(3):989-996. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.04.046

Pablo Garduno

Hi, I’m Pablo Garduno. I am a biohacking enthusiast, and Head Writer of SanDiegoHealth.org. I write the majority of the content on this site, and appreciate you taking the time to read my work.