Reishi mushroom has been called the "mushroom of immortality" for a couple thousand years. Herbalists have used it for sleep, stress, and overall calm for just as long. But until now, nobody had really tested it head-to-head against the most popular sleep supplement: melatonin.
A new study did exactly that. And reishi won.
What the researchers did
Scientists took 218 adults who all had trouble sleeping for the long haul (not just an occasional bad night, but ongoing insomnia). They split everyone into two groups:
- One group took 5 mg of melatonin every night
- The other group took reishi mushroom extract every night
Everyone took their assigned supplement for 8 weeks. Researchers measured how much each person's insomnia improved using a standard sleep questionnaire that doctors use to score how bad someone's insomnia is.
What they found
Both groups slept better by the end of the study, which is good news either way. But the reishi group improved more. On average, their insomnia scores dropped further than the melatonin group's did, and the difference was big enough that researchers don't think it happened by chance.
Almost everyone who started the study finished it (96%), and nobody had a serious bad reaction to either supplement. That's a strong sign of safety, at least over this 8-week stretch.
Why might reishi work better?
Here's the simple version. Melatonin is basically your body's "it's nighttime" signal. It tells your internal clock when to wind down. That's useful if your sleep problem is about timing, like jet lag or shift work.
But chronic insomnia usually isn't a timing problem. It's more like your nervous system is stuck in "alert mode" and can't switch itself off. Reishi appears to work on a different part of the system, the brain chemical called GABA, which is your nervous system's natural calming signal. Instead of just telling your body what time it is, reishi may help the whole system settle down.
Think of it like the difference between turning down a light switch (melatonin, a simple timing signal) versus calming an entire overactive room full of people (reishi, working on the broader resting and calming network). Melatonin is a clock-setting molecule. Reishi seems to work on the nervous system itself.
The bigger picture
This study matters beyond just sleep. We're seeing more and more functional mushrooms tested properly against established treatments, and holding their own.
Reishi's reputation as a calming, sleep-supporting mushroom goes back centuries. Now it's starting to get tested with the same rigor we'd expect from a pharmaceutical trial.
And sleep itself matters for more than just feeling rested the next day. It's the time when your brain does its overnight maintenance: clearing out waste, consolidating memories, and rebuilding the connections that let you learn and adapt. A nervous system that can't properly rest at night has a harder time reorganising and growing during the day.
So if you're struggling with sleep, it might be worth trying reishi before you reach for the standard melatonin.
If you want to give it a go, our Reishi Capsules are dual-extracted, no fillers, no nasties, just reishi. Most of our customers take theirs an hour or so before bed.
Source: Xie C. "Can't sleep? Take some shrooms: comparing reishi mushroom versus melatonin for chronic insomnia." Presented at SLEEP 2026, June 2026. Reported by Sydney Jennings, Patient Care Online.
