Saffron Helps Depression, Insomnia and–This is New–Self-Esteem.

As if depression isn’t bad enough, it often comes with insomnia and low self-esteem. Is saffron powerful enough to help all three?

Depression is too common and becoming commoner. Making things worse, 40 to 75% of people with depression have insomnia, and both depression and insomnia are associated with low self-esteem.

This new study tested the herb saffron against depression, insomnia and self-esteem as well as self-perceived physical appearance and skin quality.

Saffron did not help with the secondary objectives of skin quality or self-perceived. But it impressively helped everything else.

The 86 women in this double-blind study were all between 50 and 75 and were all experiencing low mood and poor sleep. The were each given a placebo or 14mg of saffron extract in the morning and evening for 12 weeks.

The primary outcome of the study was the effect of saffron on depression. There was significantly greater improvement in the saffron group. Saffron produced a 50.7% improvement versus 31.0% in the placebo group. Significantly more women in the saffron group had a clinically significant improvement: 48.8% versus 25.6%.

There was no difference in sleep disturbance, likely because of a large placebo response in the study. Placebo response is common in sleep and depression studies. However, there was a significantly greater improvement in sleep impairment: a 6.86 point improvement versus 3.86 on placebo. Another recent study of saffron did find improvement in sleep disturbance.

Interestingly, saffron produced significantly greater improvement in self-esteem. There was a 10% improvement in the saffron group compared to 4.8% on placebo.

This is the first study to add self-esteem to the powers of saffron. The finding is important because reducing depression does not guarantee increasing self-esteem. A meta-analysis of youths with depression concluded that antidepressant drugs do not improve self-esteem. So, this is a potentially important finding for saffron.

A recent study of people with insomnia found that, while it improved insomnia, saffron also improved depression, anxiety and stress (Sleep Med X. July 9, 2025;10:100147).

The new study builds on that evidence, showing that, in women between 50 and 75, saffron can significantly improve both depression and insomnia with the added novel finding that saffron also improves self-esteem.

Importantly, saffron did all this with a safety profile as good or better than placebo. Good or excellent tolerability was reported by 97.6% of the placebo group and 100% of the saffron group. 93% on placebo had no adverse reaction versus 95.3% on saffron.

Front. Nutr. June 2026;13:1838513.

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