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Looking for the best natural sleep supplement? Here’s our top 3 OTC sleep aid list (now updated for 2024)! Sleep aids are dietary supplements that improve your sleep duration, onset, and quality by supporting your natural brain chemicals that calm the mind and regulate deep sleep.
If there is one “health” hack that is going to improve all areas of your life, it is to get more sleep, and better-quality sleep. Sleep is the best legal performance-enhancing drug on the planet. No brain pill or caffeine or any other natural, legal substance comes close to sleep when it comes to improving your focus, cognitive sharpness, physical energy, mood, weight loss, and healthy hormone production to name only a few.
With that in mind, the best sleep aids featured in this guide not only help you to unwind and have better sleep, but also offer a wide range of knock-on health benefits. When you consistently sleep better, you will feel better, think better, perform better, and your relationships will get better.
While you may not “feel” it, these sleep supplements also help to improve your cardiovascular health, and cholesterol levels, and prevent premature cognitive decline and vision problems, which all come as a result of chronic sleep insufficiency.
Before we get to our top 3 list, however, it’s important to emphasize the importance of getting your basics right. What do we mean by that? Well, your diet, physical activity, time spent outdoors, stimulant intake, blue light exposure, and stress management all have a huge influence on your sleep. The following sleep aids will give you the best results when you pair them with a healthy lifestyle.
It is also important to differentiate between quality sleep aids, and cheap and ineffective sleep supplements that use synthetic melatonin and other potentially risky compounds. You should do your own research on the ingredients of the supplement and the company that produces it. Even the ones we show you today, you should do your diligent research to make sure what the manufacturer says is backed by evidence.
With that said, we can testify that the following OTC sleep aids are completely natural, use high-quality and studied ingredients, and enjoy excellent reviews from customers around the world. Here they are;
The Sleep Issue
Sleep is a massive issue for people around the world. A lot of our readers have issues getting consistent 8-hour sleep each night.
In fact, the situation is so bad that individuals from the UK, USA, and Canada report not even getting 6 hours of sleep!
It doesn’t help that we live in a world that praises “hard work,” aka, hustling. Spending all night working on your computer is seen as a badge of honor nowadays, and those who take breaks from work or “pursuing their dreams” are seen as lazy and unambitious.
But how healthy is it to go without proper sleep long-term?
Scientists have now known for some time that chronic sleep deprivation has real and lasting effects on your physical and mental health. Most people know about the mood-distorting, motivation-sapping, and cognition-numbing effects of sleep insufficiency. But did you know that getting less than 7-8 hours of sleep in the long run shoots your risk of getting cancer, diabetes, and heart disease into the sky?
We’re not even mentioning mental conditions like anxiety, depression, and psychosis – all of which can happen as a result of not getting enough sleep.
As such, it doesn’t surprise us that more and more people are now turning to natural sleep aids as a way to improve their sleep quality and overall health.
We did not use these supplements, but we analyzed their ingredient profiles, comparing them against the available scientific evidence to see what effects you can expect from them.
Best Sleep Aids 2024
Here are our 1-2-3 in the sleep aid Champion’s League.
#1 – Performance Lab Sleep
Performance Lab Sleep is the cleanest sleep aid currently on the market. It is effective at promoting sleep latency, onset, duration, and quality.
In other words, Performance Lab Sleep helps you to naturally fall asleep faster, while also improving deep, restorative sleep. The latter is key to feeling refreshed and energized the next morning.
Many sleep supplements stuff their formulas with unnecessary ingredients and fillers. Not Performance Lab Sleep. It contains 4 key ingredients – Magnesium, Melatonin from tart cherries, Sea Buckthorn, and Zinc – all of which are patented and come in their most bioavailable forms.
- Performance Lab Sleep’s high bioavailability is further enhanced with its plant-based NutriCaps, which are made of fermented tapioca. This results in easier absorption and utilization of the ingredients by your body.
The label of Performance Lab Sleep is completely transparent. You can see each ingredient and its dosage. The melatonin that PL Sleep uses is not something you’ll find often in sleep aids; it uses completely naturally-derived melatonin from tart cherries, making it healthy for daily use.
Together with magnesium, melatonin in Performance Lab Sleep not only improves your sleep quality but also helps to fix jet lax.
As a whole, the quality of Performance Lab Sleep is next to none. It is potent, safe, nature-derived, and clean with no unnecessary fillers.
As for the customer reviews, Performance Lab Sleep enjoys some of the best ratings and testimonials out of any sleep aid. You should notice an improvement in your ability to fall asleep and your sleep quality from the first day of taking it.
It is one of the most innovative sleep aids we’ve seen, and most importantly, it’s backed by science to work.
Main advantages:
- 60 prebiotic-infused NutriCaps® per bottle
- Enhances deep, restorative sleep
- Promotes rejuvenation
- Feel refreshed upon waking up
- Safe & clinically studied ingredient dosages
- NutriGenesis® Magnesium + TryptoPure® + CherryPURE®
- Nature-identical ingredients that are easy for your body to recognize and absorb
- Take 2-4 capsules 30 minutes before bedtime for optimal results
Interested? Performance Lab Sleep is Available at Manufacturer’s Website
#2 – RestAgain
RestAgain is a no-nonsense sleep aid with some of the best ingredients on the market. We applaud its straightforward approach – there’s no marketing fluff or gimmicks, it’s a supplement designed to give concrete results in areas of stress reduction, sleep improvement, and relaxation.
RestAgain is designed to be safe and work for everyone – including chronic insomniacs, travelers with jet lag issues, and people who need occasional sleep support for an important day ahead.
Ingredients in RestAgain:
- Melatonin 10mg
- Vit D 15mcg
- Vit B6 1mg
- Vit B12 3.7mcg
- Ashwagandha 300mg
- 5HTP 100mg
- GABA 300mg
- L Theanine 250mg
- Valerian Root 300mg
- Magnesium 225mg (125 mg from magnesium oxide / 100 mg from magnesium glycinate)
- Calcium 100 mg
RestAgain ticks most of our boxes in terms of using the best ingredients for sleep. They’re all effectively and safely dosed.
Melatonin is the most potent ingredient in RestAgain’s formula, and there’s a massive 10mg of it inside. Melatonin directly improves your sleep onset (the time it takes to fall asleep) and sleep depth.
Vitamins B6, B12, and D are all essential to our body to regulate its hormones, including those that affect your sleep cycle.
Valerian Root, L-Theanine, and magnesium all further contribute to better sleep duration and quality. We also like that Ashwagandha is included in RestAgain. Why? Because Ashwagandha is well-known for its effects on reducing cortisol – a stress hormone that can prevent you from falling asleep.
Lastly, we have 5-HTP in RestAgain, a molecule that turns to serotonin in your brain, promoting a happy mood and healthy sleep cycles.
With all of that being said, RestAgain is definitely one of the most potent natural sleep formulas we’ve seen. It’s nothing fancy, or in the words of its makers “it’s not magic”, but it should give you real improvements in both your sleep duration and quality. You should be able to fall asleep faster and stay asleep after taking RestAgain.
Another great thing about RestAgain is the 30-day money-back guarantee. If it doesn’t work for you, simply return the bottle (even if empty) and they will return your money. So there’s really nothing to lose with this supplement – many good nights of sleep to gain.
All of this taken into account, RestAgain has a thumbs up from us.
Pros
- Some of the most potent natural sleep aids
- Helps reduce stress and overthinking
- High-dosed ingredients with plenty of clinical evidence behind them
- Safe, non-addictive, and produced in FDA- and cGMP-compliant facilities
- Same-day USA shipping with tracked delivery
- The company is transparent with its ingredient doses (no proprietary blends) and doesn’t make unrealistic claims
Cons
- GABA could’ve been replaced with zinc or another more effective sleep aid
- Not cheap – $52.49 per bottle (a month’s supply)
- Synthetic melatonin is shown to be safe and non-addictive, but we still prefer natural melatonin for long-term daily use
See our full review: RestAgain Review
Interested in RestAgain?
#3 – Transparent Labs WellnessSeries Sleep Aid
Transparent Labs have only recently entered the sleep aid market, but they’re quickly growing their name as producers of high quality supplements.
WellnessSeries Sleep aid is a premium sleep stack. It provides good servings of ingredients that have been shown to enhance sleep. It covers the essential bases, including sleep depth, quality, stress, and latency.
With a clean and transparent label, Transparent Labs WellnessSeries Sleep Aid is without a doubt one of the best sleep aids on sale today. The only thing we will mention about this great sleep aid is that the quality of ingredients is not quite on par with the likes of Performance Lab Sleep.
Although it features natural ingredients, there are also synthetic forms of melatonin and vitamin B6 included, which shows the company didn’t go the same lengths as Performance Lab to make their products the highest quality possible. We can understand this, however, as most companies tend to use synthetic melatonin which is far cheaper to produce.
Due to its cheaper price though, Transparent Labs WellnessSeries Sleep Aid is still an amazing choice for those who want to improve their sleep without spending too much money.
Main advantages:
- Helps with core aspects of sleep
- Improves sleep latency
- Cheaper option at $24 per bottle
See their website: https://www.transparentlabs.com/products/wellnessseries-sleep-aid
Final Thoughts on Top 3 Sleep Aids in 2024
These 3, are, for us, the most effective and best value for money sleep aids on offer today. If you’re looking to improve your sleep, then any of these three should help you.
That said, there are obviously some major differences between them.
LUNA is the best option for people who want a cheap sleep aid for fixing jet lag. Its high dosage of melatonin makes it really good for this purpose. Still, LUNA is not the best option for long-term use since its ingredients are synthetic.
If you’re looking to relieve nighttime anxiety and overthinking, then Transparent Lab Sleep Aid could be the one for you, as it contains some herbal ingredients that specifically address these issues.
For the cleanest-quality, all-around sleep enhancer, Performance Lab Sleep is the one we recommend. It gives you all the benefits that you’d expect from a premium sleep aid – deeper sleep, the reduced time it takes to fall asleep, less turning and tossing, etc. Performance Lab Sleep is the healthiest option on this list as it’s been specifically formulated for long-term sleep support. It contains industry-leading ingredients in optimal dosages.