← The FormularyAfter hoursLemon balm
Also known as Melissa officinalis; melissa; balm mint; common balmThe calm is better studied than the sleep.
The reputation of lemon balm for sleep rests heavily on one study that does not survive a hard read: Cases 2011, twenty volunteers, open label, no placebo group, run on a branded extract, reporting a 42% fall in insomnia scores. That number is quoted everywhere. It should not be. The better evidence is for calm rather than for sleep, and it is genuinely reasonable: a 2021 meta-analysis in Phytotherapy Research pooled the randomised trials and found a real effect on anxiety scores, though the authors themselves flag high heterogeneity and few trials. Every trial in it used 300 mg or more, usually 500 to 1,500 mg a day. OUT has 100 mg. DOWN has 25 mg. At 25 mg you are getting a flavour note and a line on the label. At 100 mg you are getting a third of the smallest single dose that has been shown to change anything, stacked alongside six other ingredients pointed at the same evening. There is also a dose quirk worth knowing: in the acute work it was the lowest dose, 300 mg, that raised self-rated calmness, while 900 mg reduced alertness. More is not automatically better, and neither is less. What I would tell a friend: lemon balm is a sensible ingredient to have in a wind-down formula and a silly thing to pay a premium for at these amounts. If you want the studied dose, buy single-ingredient lemon balm at 300 to 600 mg and take that.
The leaf of Melissa officinalis, a lemon-scented member of the mint family grown across Europe since at least the Middle Ages and drunk as a calming tea for about as long.
Two mechanisms are proposed and neither is settled in humans. The first is GABA-ergic: rosmarinic acid and the triterpene acids from the leaf inhibit GABA transaminase in vitro, the enzyme that breaks GABA down, which would leave more of the brain's main calming signal in circulation. The second is cholinergic: a Melissa extract displaced nicotinic and muscarinic ligands from human cerebral cortex tissue with IC50 values of 0.18 and 3.47 mg/ml respectively — and the authors who measured those noted the binding was low compared with earlier samples. Both are findings on tissue in a dish, not measurements in a living person. Whether enough of the relevant molecules survive digestion and first-pass metabolism at any sensible oral dose to do either thing has not been demonstrated; poor bioavailability of the polyphenols is the stated reason a phytosome version exists at all. Receptor binding varies widely between strains, harvests and extraction methods, which is why two products with the same name on the label are not necessarily the same thing.
Used to support the wind-down, and studied for self-rated calm and for sleep quality.
People who want a traditional, non-pharmaceutical addition to an evening routine and are realistic about what a supporting amount does. Explicitly not for anyone with thyroid disease or on thyroid medicine without medical advice, not for anyone already taking sedating medication or drinking, not for under-12s, and not for use in pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Evening only. Take OUT roughly 30 to 60 minutes before bed; take DOWN when the evening actually winds down. Food makes no meaningful difference. Keep it away from alcohol and other sedating medicines rather than stacking them. If you take levothyroxine, separate it by several hours and tell your doctor you are using it either way.
Honestly, nothing you can attribute to it at 25 mg, and nothing you can separate from the rest of the formula at 100 mg. In the trials, at three to sixteen times these amounts, the effect was a modest improvement in self-rated calm within an hour or two, and a few points on a sleep questionnaire over two weeks. Not a switch, not sedation, and it does not put you to sleep.
Ghazizadeh and colleagues (2021, Phytotherapy Research) meta-analysed the randomised trials of Melissa officinalis and reported a standardised mean difference of -0.98 for anxiety (95% CI -1.63 to -0.33, p=0.003) and -0.47 for depression scores (95% CI -0.73 to -0.21, p=0.0005), across small and heterogeneous studies; the authors say the results should be interpreted with caution and that the effect looks strongest in the acute setting. Kennedy and colleagues (2002, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior) gave 20 healthy adults single doses of 300, 600 and 900 mg of a standardised extract in a placebo-controlled crossover: self-rated calmness was raised at the earliest time points by the lowest dose, alertness was significantly reduced at all time points by the highest dose, 600 mg improved accuracy of attention, and memory factors fell in a time- and dose-specific way. A companion study by the same group (2003, Neuropsychopharmacology) used 600, 1,000 and 1,600 mg of dried leaf and is where the nicotinic and muscarinic IC50 figures come from. Cases and colleagues (2011, Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism) reported a 42% reduction in insomnia scores with a branded extract over 15 days, but the design was open label with twenty subjects and no control group — limitations the authors list themselves. Di Pierro and colleagues (2024, Nutrients) ran a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover of a Melissa Phytosome, a branded delivery form, and found the Insomnia Severity Index 2.9 points lower than placebo (6.8 versus 9.7, p=0.003), with slow-wave sleep up about 15% and 87% of the treated group reporting better sleep against 30% on placebo; it is a study of a proprietary formulation by authors who work on that formulation, which is a reason to read it carefully rather than to dismiss it. The EMA classifies lemon balm leaf as a traditional use herbal medicinal product, which means long usage rather than demonstrated efficacy. We make no claim from any of this. MASC / BODY does not offer lemon balm as a treatment for insomnia, for an anxiety disorder or for any thyroid condition. Nothing at all has been tested at 25 mg.
Read the labelLaboratory work going back to 1985 shows lemon balm extracts forming adducts with thyroid-stimulating hormone so that it binds its receptor weakly or not at all, and reducing the thyroid-stimulating activity of immunoglobulins from people with Graves' disease. That is test-tube work, but it is a real signal: if you have thyroid disease, or take levothyroxine or another thyroid medicine, clear lemon balm with your doctor before using it. It can add to the drowsiness of sedatives, prescription sleep medicines, antihistamines and alcohol. Do not drive or operate machinery if it makes you dozy — in healthy adults, a single 900 mg dose significantly reduced self-rated alertness at every time point measured. Avoid if you are allergic to mint-family (Lamiaceae) plants. OUT also contains melatonin and L-tryptophan and DOWN contains reishi and valerian; read each product's own warnings, which are not the same as this ingredient's. The EMA restricts traditional use to adults and children over 12 and says to see a doctor if symptoms persist beyond two weeks. Not enough safety data in pregnancy or breastfeeding. Not a treatment for insomnia, for an anxiety disorder, or for any thyroid condition.
Evidence grades describe how well an ingredient is studied — A well-supported, C emerging — not a promise of results. Educational, not medical advice. Doses are typical ranges; follow the label on the product.