Lavender has a wonderful sedating effect. I like to science, so I vaped some essential oil once upon a time.. very nice calming effects that make you want to sleep, but that doesn't knock you out. Great sleep, nice and cozy.
There's limited hard science becasue what's the incentive??
But thousands of years of use in practice, so that says something.
The problem is that people don't know how to search for scientific articles, and aren't versed in understanding what makes a study a good one.
Nearly all "alternative medicines" have been scientifically studied. The difference between them and regular medicines are that the real medicines have a clear clinical benefit.