White Chestnut For Racing Thoughts - Anyone Have Experience?

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I am wondering if anyone here has any experience with using white chestnut essence to control racing thoughts that prevent sleep. I have problems with insomnia due to racing thoughts as do many Aspies and am using a combination of melatonin, Valerian, Ambien and hypnosis to get to sleep each night. The meds (especially the Valerian) are turning me into a zombie with all kinds of undesired effects wracking my body so I am looking for something simpler that might cause fewer problems.

Yesterday I was in a health foods store for something else and happened to mention my sleep problems from racing thoughts and AS to the woman I was talking to there. She walked around the corner and came back with a tiny bottle of white chestnut essence that she told me was good for exactly that kind of thing. She told me that she could put two drops of it on her tongue and within 10 minutes would feel her thoughts calm noticeably. I was not going to jump to spend more without reading some more so I told her I would keep it in mind. I did some Googling on the subject and if what I read is not just a bunch of mumbo jumbo, then this might be the ultimate answer (along with hypnosis) because these flower essences are supposed to have virtually no side effects. Late last night I got all wound up writing a long email that only got halfway complete. As a result, although the hypnosis put me near a sleep state, the nonstop thoughts were still too much and woke me back up so strongly that it took some heavier meds to knock me out. Today I went back to that store and got a small bottle of white chestnut essence to give it a try.

Does anyone here have any experience with this stuff? Is this real or is it only osteopathic mumbo jumbo?

Since there have been no responses, I will post my own feedback for others to read after trying this for the first time last night. This stuff does seem to do something and the effect is very quick but is what I would have to call minimal. I am still not convinced that it was anything more than the placebo effect and would still like to hear the opinions of others who have tried this. Here is what happened.

I stayed at my computer too late again last night writing a long email and finally pushed the chair back at 12:10 when I prefer to be off the computer relaxing and not rushed before midnight. I took my usual melatonin tablet at that time and settled into my late night routine, fixed my usual late night bowl of cereal and watched the end of a movie I had been watching lately. At about 1 AM, I put four drops of the white chestnut essence under my tongue and within 2 minutes felt something similar to a mild form of a blank sensation in my mind that I have noticed since my teen days (I really wish I could reharness that ability now). Several situations of anxiety in my life have been haunting me lately and I had some mild thoughts of that, but not as strong as what I have had before. Around 1:30 AM I began listening to a hypnosis session I use to prepare for sleep, but was still distracted enough that it interfered with the hypnotic effect to some degree. I went to bed around 1:50 AM without any of the other meds I often must take and was still awake nearly an hour later so I got out of bed, sat in my chair while yawning heavily and took two more drops of the essence. I think I finally got to sleep around 2:30 to 3 AM (better than the 4 and 5 AM that sometimes happens when I cannot sleep). Then I woke up at 5 AM but could not get back to sleep. I was still awake at 6 AM so I did the unthinkable and took half of an Ambien tablet to try to force myself to sleep at a time when other people were beginning to awaken out there. Sometime later I drifted back to sleep and slept fitfully until about 9:30, finally getting out of bed at 10:15. I probably got a total of 6 to 6.5 hours, which is better than the 3 hours I sometimes get.

My end opinion is that the white chestnut essence does something, but probably not enough to really call it effective. I may have influenced my results though by taking a small amount of a zinc supplement a couple days ago that I know triggers my insomnia. The zinc gets out of my system fairly quickly so I will continue trying the chestnut for a week or so and see if it makes any difference over a longer term. One thing that almost assures me of a good night's sleep if I am semi-relaxed to start with is Valerian, but that stuff whacks my body so badly that I try to avoid it.

Again, does anybody else have any experience with white chestnut essence and if so, what results did you get?