Abstract:The effects of water extract and ethanol extract of lily on the sleep in mice were compared. The mice were administrated with the water extract or ethanol extract at the doses of 0.625 g/kg BW and 1.25 g/kg BW（crude drug），and a blank control （distilled water）group was set. After 30 days of continuous intragastric administration，the mice were subjected to direct sleep test，prolonged pentobarbital sodium sleep time test，pentobarbital sodium subthreshold dose hypnosis test，and barbituric sodium sleep latency test.The content of 5-hydroxytryptamine（5-HT），γ-aminobutyric acid（GABA），and glutamic acid（Glu）in the mouse brain was determined.The results showed that the water extract and ethanol extract of lily had no direct sleep effect on mice.Both the water extract and ethanol extract at the dose of 1.25 g/kg BW prolonged the sleep time of mice（P＜0.05，P＜0.01），increased the number of sleeping mice（P＜0.05，P＜0.05）and shortened the sleep latency of mice（P＜0.05，P＜0.01）induced with pentobarbital sodium at a subthreshold dose. The levels of 5-HT，GABA，and Glu in the brain of the mice administrated with the water extract and ethanol extract at 1.25 g/kg BW showed no markedly differences between the two extract groups and were different from those in the blank control group（P＜0.05，P＜0.01）. The findings of this study indicate that the water extract and ethanol extract of lily can improve the sleep of mice.