Nutraceuticals for Better Sleep: Top Supplements to Give Your Customers a Restful Night

Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for both physical and mental health. Sleeping well helps maintain immune function, good heart health, as well as supporting your overall wellbeing.

However, sleep issues are widespread with roughly one third of adults worldwide experiencing symptoms of insomnia. So if you’re waking up several times during the night, lying awake for long periods, or waking up early and are unable to get back to sleep, you’re not alone.

A healthy adult usually needs roughly around seven to nine hours of sleep. While lifestyle changes can help with getting those much needed hours of sleep, nutraceuticals can also help get sleep patterns back on the right track.

Below we have listed a few ingredients that we can add to formulations to help your customers get that peaceful night’s sleep.

Chamomile Extract: A Natural Calming Agent

Known for its calming effects, Chamomile extract is a fantastic ingredient to help with a restful sleep. Chamomile contains apigenin, an antioxidant that has been linked to sedative effects, which promotes relaxation and sleep. A big factor for many people who don’t sleep well is stress. Chamomile can help calm the mind, reducing feelings of stress and anxiety that often keep us awake.

Ashwagandha: Reducing Stress for Improved Sleep

Ashwagandha holds many benefits, and on top of helping you to fall asleep, can also help you to have higher quality sleep. Ashwagandha combats and lowers cortisol levels in the body, the hormone your body releases in response to stress. By balancing these stress hormones, Ashwagandha creates a more relaxed state and offers a gentle and holistic approach to a better night’s sleep.

Lemon Balm: Supporting Relaxation and Sleep Quality

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is a member of the mint family, and is often used to ease anxiety and restlessness. In recent years, the ingredient has also been studied for its ability to improve sleep. Research, including a 2019 study on coronary bypass patients, showed that patients who took 500 mg of lemon balm leaves three times daily for 7 days determined that 54% of the participants had improvements in sleep and 49% had improvements in anxiety levels.

5-HTP: Enhancing Serotonin for Restful Sleep

5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan) is a chemical that the body makes from tryptophan (an essential amino acid that you get from food). Once tryptophan is converted to 5-HTP, the chemical is converted into serotonin, the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter that helps us regulate our moods.

Low serotonin levels have been linked to insomnia and poor sleep quality, therefore, the supplementation of 5-HTP can promote a more relaxed mind and can also help your body produce more melatonin, your body’s main sleep hormone.

Glycine: Lowering Body Temperature for Deeper Sleep

Glycine has been shown to lower the body’s core temperature, which is a key signal to the brain that it is time to sleep. A decrease in core body temperature may also be related to melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep. Not only that, but the ingredient can also calm the nervous system and help ease those with overactive brain activity.

Magnesium: A Key Mineral for Relaxation

One of our most popular ingredients we include in our formulations is magnesium. It holds so many benefits that can help promote sleep, including muscle relaxation, calming the nervous system and hormone regulation. Magnesium can help end-users sleep longer, get a better quality of sleep and feel less tired during the day.

Vitamin B6 & B12: Supporting Melatonin Production

Vitamin B6 & B12 play an important role in getting a restful night’s sleep. Both of these vitamins help your body produce melatonin and serotonin. Research shows that a lack of B12 has been linked to poor sleep quality and excessive tiredness during the day, while a deficiency in B6 has been linked to insomnia and depression. Therefore, proper supplementation of these may improve both sleep quality and duration.

Zinc: Enhancing Sleep Quality and Reducing Anxiety

Zinc has recently been studied for its ability to improve sleep quality. In 2018, a study was completed on ICU nurses where it was found that nurses with the poorest quality of sleep, had low levels of zinc in their bodies.

One group of nurses was given zinc supplements with another getting a placebo. After a month, the nurses taking the zinc supplements reported a better quality of sleep compared to that of the placebo group. Zinc has also been shown to reduce levels of anxiety which may help those calm their minds before heading to bed.

Partner with Us for High-Quality Sleep Formulations

With over 30 years of experience in nutraceutical formulation, we specialise in developing both off-the-shelf and bespoke products tailored to your customer’s needs. If you’re looking to expand your product range with effective sleep-support supplements, our expert technical team is here to help.