Sleep Quality

CBN

CBN (cannabinol) is a mildly psychoactive phytocannabinoid that forms mainly when the THC in cannabis breaks down through exposure to heat, air, and light. It was the first cannabinoid to be isolated from the plant, in the late nineteenth century, and it binds only weakly to the cannabinoid receptors, so it delivers gentle, calming effects with very little intoxication. It has become one of the most popular nighttime cannabinoids, valued for winding down and sleep support, and is now the focus of dedicated clinical sleep research.

5-HTP

5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), also known by the international nonproprietary name oxitriptan, is a naturally occurring amino acid and a direct metabolic precursor in the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Formed in the body from the amino acid tryptophan and then converted onward to serotonin, it is sold widely as an over-the-counter dietary supplement and has also been used medicinally in the management of depression and several other conditions.

Apigenin

Apigenin is a naturally occurring flavone, a subclass of flavonoid plant pigment, found in many fruits, vegetables, and herbs, with especially high levels in chamomile, parsley, and celery. It is a yellow crystalline compound studied for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and mild calming effects, the last linked to its interaction with receptors in the brain. Apigenin is consumed as part of a normal diet and is also sold as a dietary supplement.

GABA

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mature mammalian central nervous system, where it lowers the excitability of nerve cells. The same molecule is sold as a dietary supplement marketed for relaxation, stress, and sleep. A long-standing point of debate is that orally taken GABA does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier, so how supplements produce their reported calming effects is not fully settled and may involve the peripheral nervous system and the gut rather than direct action in the brain.

3 outlets

Honokiol

Honokiol is a biphenolic neolignan found in the bark, seed cones, and leaves of magnolia trees. It is one of the main bioactive constituents of magnolia bark, a material long used in traditional Chinese and Japanese herbal medicine for anxiety and mood complaints. In laboratory and animal research honokiol has drawn interest for anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, and anti-tumor activities, though it remains a subject of preliminary study rather than an approved drug.

Kava

Kava is a beverage and herbal medicine prepared from the root of Piper methysticum, a shrub in the pepper family native to the islands of the Pacific. For centuries it has been consumed ceremonially and socially across Oceania for its calming, mildly intoxicating effects, and it is used more widely as a remedy for anxiety and tension [1][2]. Its activity comes from a group of compounds called kavalactones, and its safety, particularly concerning the liver, has been the subject of regulatory debate [3][4].

Nootropic

Lemon Balm

Lemon balm, known botanically as Melissa officinalis, is a lemon-scented perennial herb in the mint family, Lamiaceae. Native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been grown for over two thousand years and used traditionally to ease tension, lift mood, and aid digestion and sleep. Its leaves are rich in the polyphenol rosmarinic acid and in fragrant terpenes such as citronellal, geranial, and neral. Modern controlled studies have examined it for anxiety, mood, cognition, sleep, and palpitations, with its calming effect attributed largely to rosmarinic acid inhibiting GABA transaminase and to extract binding at cholinergic receptors.

Mineral

Magnesium Chloride

Magnesium chloride is a highly soluble inorganic salt of the essential mineral magnesium, made of one magnesium ion and two chloride ions (MgCl2). It is used as a dietary supplement to raise or maintain magnesium status, and it is also the magnesium form behind topical "magnesium oil," a concentrated MgCl2 solution applied to the skin [1][5]. Because it dissolves and ionizes fully, the chloride form is absorbed on par with other soluble magnesium salts and better than magnesium oxide, though the fraction taken up is still modest like every magnesium supplement [1].

Magnesium Citrate

Magnesium citrate is a magnesium salt of citric acid used both as a nutritional source of the mineral magnesium and as a saline osmotic laxative. Among magnesium supplements it is comparatively water-soluble and is generally considered to have good oral bioavailability relative to inorganic salts such as magnesium oxide [1][2]. Taken by mouth, it is used to relieve occasional constipation and to clear the bowel before procedures such as colonoscopy, and it appears in dietary supplements intended to help meet magnesium requirements.

Magnesium Glycinate

Magnesium glycinate, also called magnesium bisglycinate or magnesium diglycinate, is a chelated compound in which the mineral magnesium is bound to two molecules of the amino acid glycine. It is used as a dietary supplement to raise or maintain magnesium status and is often chosen for being gentle on the digestive tract relative to some other magnesium salts [1][3]. Because it is a chelate, part of the compound appears to be absorbed as an intact magnesium-amino acid complex rather than solely as free magnesium ions [1].

Magnesium Taurate

Magnesium taurate is a compound pairing the mineral magnesium with the amino sulfonic acid taurine, promoted as a dietary supplement chiefly for cardiovascular and metabolic support. Interest in it originated largely from a 1996 hypothesis proposing that magnesium and taurine have complementary effects on blood vessels, blood pressure, and cellular calcium handling [1]. Direct human research on magnesium taurate itself is limited, and much of the supporting laboratory work has used the closely related salt magnesium acetyltaurate [2][3].

Magnolia Bark

Magnolia bark is a herbal material obtained from the bark of Magnolia officinalis and related magnolia species, long used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine, where it is known as houpu or hou po. Its characteristic constituents are the polyphenolic lignans magnolol and honokiol, which are considered responsible for most of its biological activity [1][2]. Modern research has examined the bark and its isolated lignans for neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, and antitumor properties, though most evidence comes from laboratory and animal studies rather than large human trials [1][2].

Passionflower

Passionflower usually refers to Passiflora incarnata, a climbing vine native to the southeastern United States and long used in herbal medicine. Its above-ground parts are taken, typically as teas, extracts, or tinctures, to ease anxiety and support sleep. It is thought to act on the brain's GABA system, and while some clinical studies suggest calming and sleep benefits, the overall evidence remains limited.

Adaptogen

Reishi

Reishi, known in China as lingzhi and scientifically as Ganoderma lucidum and related species, is a woody polypore mushroom native to East Asia. It has been used in Chinese and other East Asian traditional medicine for more than two thousand years, where it was sometimes called the mushroom of immortality. Its most studied constituents are triterpenoids known as ganoderic acids and cell-wall polysaccharides such as beta-glucans.

Adaptogen

Saffron

Saffron is a spice obtained from the dried red stigmas of the flower Crocus sativus, and it is among the most expensive spices in the world by weight. Beyond its long use in cooking as a coloring and flavoring, it has been investigated as a herbal remedy, most notably for depression and low mood. Its characteristic color, taste, and aroma come from the compounds crocin, picrocrocin, and safranal.

Tart Cherry Extract

Tart cherry (Prunus cerasus, usually the Montmorency variety) extract is a whole-fruit polyphenol (a broad class of plant antioxidant compounds) supplement loaded with anthocyanins (the red-purple flavonoid pigments that give the fruit its color) plus a naturally small dose of melatonin (the hormone that signals darkness to your body clock). It reads as a gentle food-derived antioxidant and anti-inflammatory rather than a hard-hitting drug; that mild profile is exactly why people reach for it. The three areas with the most human data are sleep quality, recovery from hard exercise (less soreness, faster return of strength), and lowering uric acid to ease gout. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action is the common thread running under all three. It comes as concentrate (a thick juice syrup), powder, or capsules, and potency swings wildly between products; that variability is the single biggest thing to watch.

Mood Support

Tryptophan

Tryptophan is an essential, proteinogenic alpha-amino acid used to build proteins and to make several important molecules, including the neurotransmitter serotonin, the sleep hormone melatonin and the vitamin niacin. Because humans cannot synthesise it, it must be obtained from the diet, where it occurs in foods such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, seeds and legumes. The naturally occurring L-form is also sold as a dietary supplement marketed for mood and sleep, though clinical evidence for those uses is limited [3].

Sleep Support

Valerian Root

Valerian is an herbal supplement prepared from the root and rhizome of Valeriana officinalis, a flowering plant native to Europe and Asia. It has a long history of traditional use as a sleep aid and mild sedative and remains one of the more widely used botanicals for insomnia and nervous tension. Clinical evidence for its effectiveness is mixed, and it is sold as a dietary supplement or, in some regions, as an approved traditional herbal medicine.

Sleep Support

Lemborexant

Lemborexant, sold under the brand name Dayvigo, is a prescription sleep medication of a newer class called dual orexin receptor antagonists. Developed by Eisai and approved in the United States in 2019, it is used to treat insomnia in adults, helping with both falling asleep and staying asleep. Rather than broadly sedating the brain like older sleeping pills, it works by blocking orexin, a signal that promotes wakefulness, and it is classed as a controlled substance.

Neurosteroid

Pregnanolone

Pregnanolone (3α-hydroxy-5β-pregnan-20-one, also written 3α,5β-tetrahydroprogesterone) is an endogenous neurosteroid, meaning a steroid that acts rapidly on neuronal ion channels rather than through classical intracellular hormone receptors, formed as a reduced metabolite of progesterone. It is the 5β epimer of allopregnanolone and a potent positive allosteric modulator of the GABA-A receptor (the pentameric chloride channel that carries most fast inhibitory signalling in the brain), giving it sedative, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant and anaesthetic properties. Under the International Nonproprietary Name eltanolone it was developed in the 1990s as an intravenous general anaesthetic, formulated in a soybean-oil emulsion after earlier castor-oil-solubilised steroid anaesthetics proved allergenic; smooth induction and cardiovascular stability were offset by slow recovery and skin reactions, and it was never marketed. Its sulfate and synthetic glutamate esters are studied separately as use-dependent inhibitors of the NMDA receptor, an excitatory glutamate channel implicated in excitotoxicity and neuroprotection.

Growth Hormone

MK-677

MK-677, widely known as Ibutamoren, is an orally active, non-peptide growth hormone secretagogue that mimics the hunger hormone ghrelin at the growth hormone secretagogue receptor to amplify the body's own pulsatile production of growth hormone and IGF-1. In a two-year randomized controlled trial in older adults it restored growth hormone secretion into the young-adult range and significantly increased fat-free mass without serious adverse effects, and separate controlled studies show it raises IGF-1 in growth-hormone-deficient children, increases markers of bone turnover, and improves slow-wave and REM sleep. Because it is taken once daily by mouth rather than injected, it is among the most rigorously characterized compounds in the growth hormone space. Trials in frailer populations have been more equivocal, with the ghrelin-mimetic mechanism engaging its target reliably while functional and disease-modifying benefits, for example in hip-fracture recovery and Alzheimer disease, were not established; increased appetite, transient edema, and reduced insulin sensitivity are recognized effects.

5 outlets

CBD

CBD (cannabidiol) is a non-intoxicating phytocannabinoid, one of the many active compounds found in the cannabis plant. Unlike THC, it does not produce a high, and a purified pharmaceutical form is approved to treat certain severe childhood epilepsies. It is also widely sold as an unregulated supplement and studied for anxiety, pain, and inflammation, though high-quality evidence for most of those uses remains limited.

THC

Tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly abbreviated THC, is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. It belongs to a family of naturally occurring cannabinoids and, in its most common delta-9 form, produces the characteristic euphoria and altered perception associated with the plant. THC also has recognized medical uses, including relief of chemotherapy-induced nausea and stimulation of appetite, and it is available as the pharmaceutical dronabinol.

Chamomile

Chamomile is the common name for several daisy-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, most importantly German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla, also cataloged as Matricaria recutita) and Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile). Its dried flower heads have been used for centuries as a soothing herbal tea and folk remedy for relaxation, sleep, and digestion. The flowers are rich in the flavonoid apigenin and in terpenoids such as alpha-bisabolol and chamazulene, and modern research has documented anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activity, with the calming effect linked to apigenin binding the benzodiazepine site of the GABA-A receptor.

Dronabinol

Dronabinol is a pharmaceutical cannabinoid that consists of synthetically produced (-)-trans-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC), the principal psychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa, formulated as an oral agent. Marketed as Marinol (sesame-oil capsules) and Syndros (an oral solution), it is approved by the U.S. FDA for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting refractory to conventional antiemetics and for anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS. It acts as a partial agonist at the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors of the endocannabinoid system, producing appetite stimulation, antiemetic effects, analgesia, and mood elevation. Dronabinol capsules were rescheduled from Schedule II to the less restrictive Schedule III in the United States, while the Syndros oral solution remains Schedule II.

Gabapentin enacarbil

Gabapentin enacarbil is an extended-release prodrug of the gabapentinoid gabapentin that is enzymatically hydrolyzed to gabapentin after absorption. It was engineered to overcome the erratic, saturable absorption of oral gabapentin by acting as a substrate for high-capacity nutrient transporters (MCT-1 and SMVT) expressed throughout the small and large intestine, yielding sustained, dose-proportional plasma gabapentin concentrations. Marketed as Horizant in the United States and Regnite in Japan, it is approved for moderate-to-severe primary restless legs syndrome (RLS, also called Willis-Ekbom disease) and for the management of postherpetic neuralgia. Like gabapentin, its active moiety binds the alpha-2-delta (a2d) auxiliary subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels rather than acting directly on GABA receptors, reducing depolarization-evoked release of excitatory neurotransmitters.

Jujube

Jujube is the common name for Ziziphus jujuba, a small thorny tree or shrub of the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, and for its edible fruit. Also called red date or Chinese date, it has been cultivated in China and neighboring regions for thousands of years, and the fruit is eaten fresh, dried, or candied as well as used in traditional medicine [1]. Its fruit and seeds contain saponins, flavonoids, and polysaccharides that are the focus of pharmacological study [1][2].

Lavender

Lavender is a group of aromatic flowering plants of the genus Lavandula in the mint family, best known for the fragrant essential oil distilled from the flowers of species such as Lavandula angustifolia. Native to the Mediterranean region, it has a long history in perfumery, cooking, and traditional medicine, where it has been used to calm the mind and aid sleep. Its oil, rich in the compounds linalool and linalyl acetate, is used in aromatherapy and, in a standardized oral form, has been studied as a treatment for anxiety.

Peptide

N-Acetyl Epitalon

N-Acetyl Epitalon is an acetylated analog of Epitalon, a synthetic tetrapeptide with the sequence Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly that was derived from the pineal gland extract epithalamin. The parent peptide was developed largely at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and studied as a putative anti-aging agent, with reports that it can switch on telomerase and lengthen telomeres in cultured human cells. The N-acetyl modification is intended to improve the molecule's stability; robust human clinical evidence for either form remains limited.

Nabilone

Nabilone is a synthetic cannabinoid (a structural analog of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) that acts as an agonist at the cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptors. Marketed as Cesamet, it is approved in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries for the treatment of severe nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy that has failed to respond to conventional antiemetics. Unlike inhaled cannabis or plant-derived THC, nabilone is a single, orally administered, pharmaceutically standardized molecule, which gives it consistent dosing and a defined pharmacokinetic profile. Beyond its licensed antiemetic indication, it has been studied off-label for neuropathic and chronic non-cancer pain, fibromyalgia, PTSD-associated nightmares, and agitation in Alzheimer's disease, with mixed but frequently encouraging results. Nabilone is a Schedule II controlled substance in the United States and a prescription-only medicine.

Ornithine

Ornithine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid, meaning it is not used to build proteins, that serves as a central intermediate in the urea cycle, the body's main route for disposing of waste nitrogen as urea. It is closely related to the amino acids arginine and citrulline and is produced when the enzyme arginase splits arginine, releasing urea in the process. As a supplement, ornithine is taken on its own, usually as L-ornithine, and, combined with aspartate as L-ornithine L-aspartate, it is used medically to lower elevated blood ammonia in liver disease.

Scutellaria

Scutellaria, commonly called skullcap, is a large genus of flowering plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae), several species of which are used in herbal medicine. The two most important are Chinese, or Baikal, skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis), whose root Huang Qin is a staple of traditional Chinese medicine, and American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), traditionally used for anxiety and nervous conditions. Their effects are attributed largely to flavonoids such as baicalin, baicalein, and wogonin.

Nootropic

Vesilute

Vesilute is a synthetic dipeptide composed of glutamic acid and aspartic acid (Glu-Asp). It is described as one of the short peptide bioregulators in the tradition of Russian gerontology research and is promoted as a tissue-specific peptide aimed at the urinary tract and bladder. Independent published research on Vesilute itself is very limited, and it is not an approved medicine; it is generally sold and handled as a research peptide.