Abstract:The effect of different proportion of gardenia-Cinnamon cassia aqueous extract and the mechanism of the optimal proportion on improving sleep were studied.A total of 150 healthy adult Kunming male mice ranging from 18 g to 22 g were selected and randomly divided into experimental groups according in line with their weights，10 in each group.Each day，gardenia-Cinnamon cassia aqueous extract of different proportion was given by oral intragastric administration with low，high dose，negative control group（normal saline）；according to the mass ratio of 10 ∶1，5 ∶1 and 1 ∶1 gardenia-Cinnamon cassia aqueous extract group；and the positive control group of western medicine （diazepam）.After continuous intragastric administration for 30 days，the sleep test，the prolonged sleep test with sodium pentobarbital，hypnosis test with sodium pentobarbital under valve and the sleeping incubation period induced by barbital sodium experiment were performed directly.The contents of 5-hydroxytryptamine（5-HT）and γ-aminobutyric acid（GABA）in the brain of mice were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay（ELISA）.The resulets showed that，varied compatibility proportion of gardenia and Cinnamon cassia had no direct sleep within 60 minutes；compared with the negative control group ，The gardenia-Cinnamon cassia mass ratio 5 ∶1 group could prolong the sleep time of pentobarbital sodium mice （P＜0.05），and increase the sleep rate of pentobarbital sodium valve mice （P＜0.05）.Gardenia-Cinnamon cassia mass ratio10：1 group can shorten the sleep latency of barbiturate mice （P＜0.05）.Compared with negative control group，the gardenia-Cinnamon cassia mass ratio 5 ∶1 group could significantly increase the content of GABA in mice brain（P＜0.05），but had no evident effect on the content of 5-HT（P＞0.05）.The gardenia-Cinnamon cassia mass ratio 5 ∶1 group generated the best effect on improving sleep，and its mechanism might be related to the increase of GABA content in the brain of mice.