By Roy Newlan, founder Last updated 13/08/2026
Chamomile tea before bed might be the oldest wind-down habit still in daily use. Settl carries chamomile too, as a 45:1 flower extract at 50mg in every scoop. Same plant, very different cup. Here is what a teabag actually gives you, what an extract gives you, and why the difference is worth the maths.
Does chamomile tea actually work?
The ritual works, and the plant has centuries of quiet evenings behind it. The weak link is the teabag, which delivers a small and unpredictable amount of that plant.
A warm cup at the same point every night tells your body the day is closing, and that settling signal is valuable on its own. If tea is your habit, keep it. This is not an argument against tea drinkers. It is an argument for knowing the numbers. Once you see how little chamomile survives the trip from bag to cup, the tea's reputation starts to look like it belongs mostly to the ritual, not the dose.
How much chamomile is in a typical teabag?
The chamomile teabags on Australian supermarket shelves mostly hold roughly 1 to 1.5g of dried flower. You then drink not the flower but whatever a few minutes of hot water manages to pull out of it, which is only part of what the bag holds.
Steep for two minutes instead of five and you get less again. Water off the boil, a squeezed bag or an unsqueezed one, one brand's cut of flower against another's, each moves the number. None of this makes tea bad. It makes tea variable, and a variable dose is a hard thing to build a nightly routine on.
What does a 45:1 chamomile extract mean?
It means 45 parts of dried chamomile flower are concentrated into 1 part of finished extract. Each Settl serve carries 50mg of that extract, which took about 2.25g of dried flower to make, roughly one to two teabags' worth depending on the brand, before you even account for how much of a bag a brew actually pulls out.
The extraction has already happened, in a controlled process rather than in your mug, so the dose does not depend on steep time or water temperature. Every scoop carries the same 50mg. Here is the comparison in one place:
| A bedtime teabag | Settl's chamomile extract | |
|---|---|---|
| Dried chamomile flower | Roughly 1 to 1.5g per bag | About 2.25g equivalent, as 50mg of 45:1 extract |
| What reaches you | Whatever a few minutes of hot water pulls from the bag, often only part of it | The concentrated extract itself, extraction already done |
| Dose consistency | Varies with brand, bag and steep | The same 50mg in every 9g scoop, printed on the label |
| Fluid that comes with it | A warm mug, around 250ml, right before bed | One small cold glass |
| Caffeine | None, chamomile is naturally caffeine-free | None here either, across all seven actives |
| Company it keeps | Chamomile alone | One of seven actives working together |
Why not just drink a few cups of chamomile tea before bed?
You could, and the flower maths would start to add up. The problem is everything that comes with it, mostly water. Two mugs is around half a litre of warm fluid right before you lie down, and half a litre of warm fluid at 10pm is a reliable way to be awake at 3am.
Settl takes the opposite approach. One small cold glass, and the drink carries sodium and potassium alongside the chamomile, so the fluid you do take on tends to stay with you through the night instead of passing straight through. You get more dried-flower equivalent than the teabags offered, without the half litre of warm fluid.
Is chamomile extract better than tea for sleep?
For the dose, yes. The extract fixes the amount, prints it on the label, and skips the variables of brewing. What it does not replace is the ritual, so Settl keeps one: a glass mixed at the same point every night, the last thing you do before bed.
What chamomile brings to that glass is the feeling the tea ritual always promised, the residue of the day settling before you lie down. And it does not carry the formula alone. It is one of seven actives, there to quiet the day while L-theanine settles the head, glycine smooths the wind-down and magnesium helps the body unwind. The full list, with every dose, is on the ingredients page. The thinking is consistent across the scoop: gentle actives that let the day end, nothing that forces sleep. It is the same reasoning behind why there is no melatonin in Settl.
Where does chamomile fit in Settl?
Every 9g scoop carries 50mg of 45:1 chamomile flower extract, about 2.25g of dried flower equivalent, in cold water alongside six other actives. The oldest evening plant there is, minus the brewing lottery and the extra fluid.
Start your nightly ritual, $99.95/mo. Prefer to start with a single tub? One-time is $120. Both prices inc. GST.
Cheers, Roy