How to Drink Chamomile Tea for Anxiety

Drinking one to three cups of chamomile tea daily, brewed with hot (not quite boiling) water and steeped for at least ten to twenty minutes, is the approach best supported by research for easing anxiety symptoms. The effect is modest rather than dramatic, but clinical trials consistently find that regular chamomile consumption lowers anxiety scores compared to placebo. Getting the most from your cup comes down to a few practical details: which type of chamomile you buy, how you brew it, when you drink it, and whether you stick with it long enough for cumulative benefits to show up.

What the Research Actually Shows

The most cited clinical trial on chamomile and anxiety was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of people with generalized anxiety disorder. Participants who received chamomile extract experienced a significantly greater reduction in anxiety scores than those on placebo. The researchers described the effect as “modest anxiolytic activity in patients with mild to moderate GAD.”¹ That word “modest” matters. Chamomile is not a replacement for therapy or prescription medication in severe anxiety. It is, however, a real effect confirmed under controlled conditions, not just a folk remedy that people feel good about.

A 2024 systematic review looked across ten clinical studies and found that nine of them concluded chamomile was effective at reducing anxiety.² That level of consistency across studies with different designs and populations is encouraging. Most of these trials used standardized chamomile extract in capsule form rather than brewed tea, so the doses were more precisely measured than what you get from steeping a bag. Still, the active compounds are the same whether they come in a capsule or a cup, and tea has been the traditional delivery method for centuries.

How Chamomile Calms the Nervous System

The key players in chamomile are its flavonoids and terpenoids. Among these, apigenin gets the most attention. Research shows that apigenin binds to the same receptors in the brain that benzodiazepine drugs target, producing a mild sedative and calming effect by influencing GABA signaling.³ Other important compounds include luteolin, quercetin, chamazulene, and bisabolol, each contributing to chamomile’s anti-inflammatory and soothing properties.⁴

An exploratory study also found that chamomile extract therapy was associated with changes in cortisol patterns. People whose anxiety improved the most during treatment showed a healthier cortisol rhythm: higher morning cortisol with a steeper drop through the day, which is the pattern associated with a well-regulated stress response.⁵ This suggests chamomile’s anti-anxiety effect may involve restoring the body’s stress-hormone cycle, not just sedating you in the moment.

How to Brew It for the Best Effect

Temperature and steeping time matter more than most people realize. A food science study that optimized chamomile extraction found that the concentration of beneficial compounds peaked when the water was around 90°C (about 194°F) and the steeping time was twenty minutes.⁶ In practical terms, that means bringing your water to a boil and then letting it sit for about a minute before pouring it over the chamomile. Fully boiling water at 100°C extracted similar amounts of beneficial phenols but also made the tea noticeably cloudier, so backing off slightly gives you a cleaner cup without sacrificing much.

Twenty minutes of steeping is longer than most tea drinkers are used to. If you are treating your chamomile tea like a green or black tea and pulling the bag at three to five minutes, you are leaving a significant portion of the active compounds behind. Cover the cup while it steeps to trap volatile oils that would otherwise evaporate. A saucer or small plate over the top works fine. The tea will be lukewarm by the time twenty minutes pass, which is perfectly acceptable. If you prefer it warmer, gently reheat without bringing it back to a boil.

Use about one heaping tablespoon of dried chamomile flowers per cup if you are using loose-leaf. With tea bags, a single standard bag is typically around one to one-and-a-half grams, which is on the lighter side. Using two bags per cup or switching to a brand that packs more into each bag can bring you closer to the doses used in studies. The clinical trials that showed anxiety benefits generally used the equivalent of around 1,500 mg of dried chamomile per day, spread over multiple doses.

Choosing the Right Chamomile

Two species dominate the market: German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) and Roman chamomile (Anthemis nobilis). German chamomile is considered the more potent of the two and is the variety used in nearly all clinical research on anxiety.³ If the label on your tea just says “chamomile” without specifying, it is most likely German chamomile, but it is worth checking when you can. Roman chamomile has overlapping compounds and a slightly different flavor profile, and it is not necessarily ineffective, but the evidence base is built around the German variety.

The physical form of the tea also affects quality. Whole or minimally processed chamomile flowers retain more of their essential oils than finely crushed material. When chamomile is ground or heavily processed for tea bags, the tiny oil-storing structures on the flower surface get damaged, causing volatile compounds to escape before the tea ever reaches your cup.⁷ Loose-leaf chamomile with intact flower heads tends to produce a more aromatic and phytochemically rich brew. If loose-leaf is impractical for you, look for tea bags that contain visible flower pieces rather than a fine powder.

When and How Often to Drink It

There is no single “correct” time to drink chamomile for anxiety, but a few patterns make sense given how the compounds work. If your anxiety tends to spike at particular times of day, drinking a cup about thirty to forty-five minutes beforehand gives the compounds time to absorb. For generalized, all-day anxiety, spreading two to three cups throughout the day creates a more sustained presence of the active flavonoids in your system.

Consistency matters more than any single cup. The clinical trials showing anxiety benefits ran for eight weeks or longer. One study on postnatal women who drank chamomile tea for two weeks found improvements in sleep-related physical symptoms and depression, but those improvements faded after the women stopped drinking it.⁸ The takeaway: chamomile appears to work while you are using it and loses its effect when you stop. Treating it as a daily habit rather than an occasional remedy is the approach most aligned with the evidence.

The Sleep Connection

Anxiety and poor sleep feed each other in a loop that most anxious people know well. Chamomile appears to help on both fronts. A meta-analysis of randomized and quasi-randomized trials found a significant improvement in sleep quality with chamomile use, alongside its benefits for generalized anxiety.⁹

If poor sleep is amplifying your anxiety, an evening cup about an hour before bed serves double duty. The mild sedative effect of apigenin can ease the racing-mind feeling that keeps people up, while the warmth and ritual of preparing tea can become a wind-down cue your body learns to associate with approaching sleep. People who drink chamomile primarily for anxiety but find their sleep improving as a side benefit are likely getting a compounding effect: better rest reduces next-day anxiety, which in turn makes the following night’s sleep easier.

That said, the postnatal study mentioned earlier found that chamomile’s sleep benefits were limited to the period of active use and did not persist once women stopped drinking it.⁸ This reinforces the “daily habit” approach. An occasional cup before a stressful event is fine for acute comfort, but the anxiety and sleep benefits that show up in clinical trials came from weeks of regular use.

Safety, Allergies, and Drug Interactions

Chamomile is safe for the vast majority of people, and the clinical trials report very few adverse events. The randomized trial on generalized anxiety disorder found no significant difference in side effects between the chamomile and placebo groups.¹ But a few populations need to be cautious.

If you are allergic to ragweed, chrysanthemums, marigolds, or other plants in the daisy family, chamomile could trigger a reaction. Chamomile is a member of the same botanical family, and cross-reactivity has been documented. One case report described anaphylaxis after chamomile tea ingestion in a person sensitized to mugwort and ragweed pollen.¹⁰ Full anaphylaxis is rare, but if you have known pollen allergies in that family, start with a small amount and watch for itching, swelling, or breathing difficulty.

The most clinically significant drug interaction involves blood thinners. Chamomile contains coumarin-like compounds, and a case report documented a patient on warfarin who experienced multiple internal hemorrhages after using chamomile tea and chamomile-containing body lotion.¹¹ If you take warfarin or another anticoagulant, talk to your doctor before making chamomile tea a daily habit. The interaction may be dose-dependent, but it is not the kind of risk worth testing on your own.

Chamomile can also theoretically amplify the sedative effects of benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and other central nervous system depressants. If you are already taking medication for anxiety, adding chamomile tea is unlikely to cause problems at normal consumption levels, but your prescriber should know about it so they can watch for excessive drowsiness.

Chamomile During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is when anxiety often intensifies, making chamomile tea especially appealing. The safety picture here, though, is more complicated than for the general population. A review of studies on chamomile use during pregnancy found associations that raised concern. In one cohort, women who used chamomile had a higher frequency of miscarriages and an increased risk of preterm labor. A second, larger study found a statistically significant increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight among chamomile users.¹²

These were observational studies, not randomized trials, so they cannot prove chamomile caused the outcomes. Women who reach for chamomile during pregnancy may already be experiencing more symptoms or stress, which could confound the results. Still, the signal is concerning enough that most guidelines advise pregnant women to avoid chamomile or use it only in very small amounts and with medical guidance. An occasional cup is almost certainly fine, but daily therapeutic-dose consumption during pregnancy is a different risk profile than during normal circumstances.

Heavy Metals in Herbal Teas

One safety issue that rarely comes up in conversations about chamomile is contamination. A systematic review of metal levels in commonly consumed herbal teas found that all tested varieties contained detectable amounts of metals, and none met every threshold set by the World Health Organization. The review noted that the health risks from arsenic and lead in herbal teas were higher than in other beverages, though more than 70 percent of overall risk assessments still fell in an acceptable range.¹³

For someone drinking a cup here and there, this is not a practical concern. For someone drinking two to three cups daily over months or years, as the anxiety evidence suggests is ideal, it becomes worth thinking about. Buying from brands that test for heavy metals, choosing organic when possible, and rotating between different brands or suppliers can all reduce cumulative exposure. Some companies voluntarily publish third-party lab results showing their contaminant levels, which is a good sign of quality control. If you are planning long-term daily use, spending a little more on a tested product is a reasonable investment.

Making It a Ritual

Something the clinical literature does not capture well is the behavioral side of tea drinking. Anxiety often thrives on the feeling that things are out of control. Having a predictable, sensory-rich daily routine works against that. The act of heating water, measuring chamomile, waiting for it to steep, and sitting with a warm cup engages enough of your attention to interrupt low-grade rumination. Psychologists call this a “grounding” activity, and it is a recognized component of anxiety management. The tea’s pharmacological effects are real, but they are riding on top of a ritual that has its own calming properties.

This also helps explain why the research on chamomile tea specifically, as opposed to standardized capsules, sometimes produces benefits that seem outsized relative to the dose. A cup of chamomile tea delivers fewer milligrams of apigenin than a clinical extract capsule, yet people report meaningful relief. Part of that is certainly placebo, but the ritual component offers a mechanism that goes beyond placebo: you are genuinely doing something that reduces physiological arousal, even before the flavonoids kick in. Leaning into that by making the preparation deliberate rather than rushed, choosing a cup you like, and pairing the tea with a few minutes of quiet, turns a mild herbal remedy into a more potent anxiety management practice.