Awaiting clinical review. This entry is sourced but has not yet been signed off by a pharmacist or clinician.
Hops
Hops probably has a modest sleep effect when combined with valerian, but almost no good evidence supports hops on its own. The EU regulator accepts it for mild stress and sleep on traditional use only, because every clinical trial it reviewed used a valerian-hops combination. It appears well tolerated, but safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding is not established and it may make you drowsy.
At a glance
Last reviewed 29 September 2026What it's used for
Evidence is rated per use. The same ingredient can be strong for one thing and traditional for another.
| Use | Evidence | What the research shows |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep (valerian-hops combination) | Limited | In a 184-adult placebo-controlled trial of mild insomnia, a valerian-hops combination gave a modest hypnotic effect, but few comparisons with placebo reached statistical significance and polysomnography showed no group difference in sleep continuity. Sleep-onset time fell more than with placebo, though not significantly, and quality of life improved at 28 days. Because the trial used both herbs, it cannot tell you what hops contributed.1 |
| Sleep (hops alone) | Traditional | The one human study we found is a 14-day trial in 17 female shift-working nurses who drank non-alcoholic beer with supper, with each nurse compared against her own no-beer nights. Actigraphy sleep latency was about 12 minutes versus 20 minutes. It was small, unblinded and tested a beverage, not a hops supplement. The EU regulator rates hops alone on traditional use only.4,3,2 |
| Mild mental stress | Traditional | The EU regulator recognises hop cone preparations for relief of mild symptoms of mental stress on the basis of at least 30 years of traditional use. It found insufficient clinical evidence, and we found no trial of hops alone for stress that we could rate.3,2 |
| Menopausal hot flushes and discomfort | Limited | Three small placebo-controlled trials of hop extract, standardised to the phytoestrogen 8-prenylnaringenin, are mixed. In 67 women, 100 micrograms daily beat placebo at 6 weeks on the Kupperman index but not at 12 weeks, and 250 micrograms did worse than 100. In a 36-woman crossover pilot, the overall treatment effect was not significant. A 120-woman Iranian trial reported large falls in symptom scores and hot flush counts, but it is a single-site trial with effect sizes much larger than the others. We found only a protocol for a systematic review, no completed one.5,6,7 |
How much
Ranges below are what studies used and what supplements commonly contain. They are not a recommendation for you. Start at the low end.
How people take it
Safety
Who should avoid
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding — safety not established, EU regulator advises against
- Children under 12 — not recommended, too little safety data
- Before driving or operating machinery — EU monograph says it may impair ability
- Hormone-sensitive conditions — extracts are phytoestrogenic, ask your clinician first
- Known allergy to hops
Known interactions
Questions people ask
Does hops help you sleep?
Possibly, in combination with valerian, where one large trial found a modest effect. Hops on its own has little human evidence: the EU regulator could not draw firm conclusions because the clinical studies all used valerian-hops combinations.
Does non-alcoholic beer help you sleep?
One small trial in 17 nurses found shorter sleep latency after two weeks of a non-alcoholic beer with supper. It was unblinded and tiny, so it is a hint rather than a finding.
Does hops help with menopause symptoms?
Results are mixed. Two small trials of an 8-prenylnaringenin hop extract found some benefit at 6 weeks or in a later crossover period but not consistently overall, and a third reported large benefits. No completed systematic review exists, so it is not a proven alternative to other treatments.
Is hops safe to take with other medicines?
The EU monograph lists no interactions. In 16 peri- and postmenopausal women, two weeks of hop extract did not change how the body handled four test drugs, apart from a 7.6% drop in alprazolam exposure that the authors judged not clinically relevant. That was a study of a single product, so it does not rule out other interactions.
Sources
- Randomised controlled trial Morin CM, Koetter U, Bastien C, Ware JC, Wooten V. Valerian-hops combination and diphenhydramine for treating insomnia: a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Sleep. 2005.
- Regulator summary European Medicines Agency HMPC. Hop strobile, Humulus lupulus L., flos: herbal medicine summary for the public (EMA/304459/2016). 2016.
- Regulator monograph European Medicines Agency HMPC. Community herbal monograph on Humulus lupulus L., flos (EMA/HMPC/682384/2013). 2014.
- Clinical trial Franco L, Sanchez C, Bravo R, Rodriguez AB, Barriga C, Romero E, Cubero J. The sedative effect of non-alcoholic beer in healthy female nurses. PLoS One. 2012.
- Randomised controlled trial Heyerick A, Vervarcke S, Depypere H, Bracke M, De Keukeleire D. A first prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the use of a standardized hop extract to alleviate menopausal discomforts. Maturitas. 2006.
- Randomised controlled trial Erkkola R, Vervarcke S, Vansteelandt S, Rompotti P, De Keukeleire D, Heyerick A. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over pilot study on the use of a standardized hop extract to alleviate menopausal discomforts. Phytomedicine. 2010.
- Randomised controlled trial Aghamiri V, Mirghafourvand M, Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi S, Nazemiyeh H. The effect of Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) on early menopausal symptoms and hot flashes: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2016.
- Pharmacokinetic study van Breemen RB, Chen L, Tonsing-Carter A, et al. Pharmacokinetic interactions of a hop dietary supplement with drug metabolism in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. J Agric Food Chem. 2020.
Last reviewed 29 September 2026 · Next review March 2027 · How we rate evidence