Sleep: supplements, ingredients and routines
Why does the sleep shelf look like a small alphabet? Melatonin, magnesium, glycine, 5-HTP and a handful of herbs sit side by side, each with its own reputation and very different products behind similar names.
This is the home for everything we have on sleep: the ingredients you meet on labels, the rules that shape what is sold, and the everyday habits that sit underneath all of it. It is for anyone curious about sleep products, whether you are just looking or comparing labels.
Where to start
- My evenings are the problem. Begin with Sleep routines: the useful basics, then read the ingredient guide for anything you have been offered.
- I am comparing products. Start with Sleep supplements: ingredients before the promise, then open the guide for each ingredient on the label in front of you.
- I take medication. Read Supplements, herbs and medication: how to check a combination first, then the ingredient guide you are considering.
The guides, in reading order
- Sleep routines: the useful basics: Which everyday habits are a sensible foundation, and where do they stop?
- Sleep supplements: ingredients before the promise: How do you read a sleep product by its ingredients, and what do Dutch and EU rules allow?
- Melatonin: timing, labels and the questions to ask: What is melatonin, and what does a label tell you about timing?
- Magnesium and sleep: what is the connection?: What does the small amount of research on magnesium and sleep show, and what are the intake limits?
- Glycine and sleep: small studies, useful questions: How did glycine get a sleep reputation, and what did the small studies explore?
- 5-HTP for sleep: what it is, what the research covers and what to check first: What is 5-HTP, and which interaction points come before anything else?
- Sleep herbs explained: valerian, passionflower, chamomile and lavender: Why are four bedtime herbs not interchangeable?
Before you buy anything
Melatonin is treated differently in the Netherlands depending on the amount per dose, which the melatonin guide covers. A sleep problem that lingers is a question for a healthcare professional.
Related guides and hubs
- Magnesium forms: what's actually different?: from the Nutrients hub, useful when a sleep label names a particular form.
- How to read a supplement label (and a lab certificate): from the Buying and rules hub.
- Reishi and sleep: what the research shows and Ashwagandha: the plant behind the stress and sleep claims: from the Functional mushrooms and adaptogens hub.
Last updated: 14 October 2026