Neither is sedating, Dan shen calms the shen and is used as part of a formula for irritability, bad dreams, restlessness or anxiety, Xiang fu is used for GI and gynecological pain, but has no central sedating effect. Carefully read your materia medica sheets, if it was overtly sedating it would say so on the sheet, so the fact that is says sedating on the list of western classifications means it might have a mild effect, or be sedating to a specific tissue or organ, but again if it had more broad ranging activity it would be on the sheet.