Supplement & Nutrient Encyclopedia
Supplements for sleep: what the human evidence shows
6 supplements in our encyclopedia have at least one graded human outcome for sleep. Each row shows the strongest one, ranked by grade and then by the number of people studied. A high grade means the research is solid, not that the effect is large: open the row for the size of the effect and the dose tested.
Strongest evidence per supplement
| Supplement | Strongest outcome | Grade | Study |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melatonin | Sleep onset and total sleep by dose and timingImproved | Grade B | meta-analysis · n = 1,689 · 2024 |
| Ashwagandha | Overall sleepImproved | Grade B | meta-analysis · n = 400 · 2021 |
| Saffron | Sleep quality and durationImproved | Grade C | meta-analysis · n = 431 · 2022 |
| Magnesium glycinate | Insomnia severityImproved | Grade C | RCT · n = 155 · 2025 |
| Magnesium | Time to fall asleep (older adults)Improved | Grade C | meta-analysis · n = 151 · 2021 |
| Magnesium L-threonate | Sleep qualityMixed | Grade C | RCT · n = 80 · 2024 |
Articles
- Ashwagandha for Stress and Sleep: What the Trials Found, and Why the Results Vary So Much
- Ashwagandha Side Effects: The Liver, Thyroid and Pregnancy Warnings Behind Denmark’s Ban
- How Much Magnesium Is Too Much? The 350 mg Rule, the Label Trap and Who Should Be Careful
- How Much Melatonin Should You Take? Trials Used 0.5 to 5 mg, and Timing Mattered as Much as Dose
- Magnesium Glycinate vs Citrate: The Calm One, the Bathroom One, and What the Label Really Holds
- Melatonin Gummies: 22 of 25 Were Mislabeled, and Child Poison-Center Calls Rose Sixfold
- Saffron for Sleep: Better Quality Scores in 8 Trials, Low-Certainty Evidence
- Saffron Supplement Side Effects: A Blood-Pressure Dip and Little Long-Term Data
Related
- Evidence-graded sleep stack
- Magnesium for sleep
- Peptides studied for sleep
- CBD and CBN for sleep, ranked by lab data
- Compare two supplements side by side
Other goals: Focus · Energy · Stress · Healthy aging · Heart · Bones & joints · Immune · Performance · Metabolic