If you’ve tried to fix sleep with yet another melatonin gummy only to wake up groggy or wired at 3 a.m., you’re not alone. Most of us want deeper sleep without next-day drag, mystery ingredients, or complicated routines.

Unfortunately, government regulation on sleep supplements is minimal, so you have to rely on third-party evaluations to figure out what’s really going on inside your favorite sleep aids. To find options that actually help you relax (and that you’ll stick with) we looked at six popular options: Thorne, Magnesium Breakthrough, Marea, Calm, Beam, and Momentous.

We focused on two things that matter in nightly use: purity (clean formulas, transparent dosing, third-party testing) and performance (does it help you wind down, stay asleep, and wake clear). Then we compared them across four key categories: formulation purity and transparency, effectiveness for and sleep quality, side effects and tolerability, and price and convenience.

What to Look For in a Sleep Supplement

First, it’s important to understand the lens we’re using for these comparisons, and why. In an unregulated market like the one for sleep supplements, false marketing is common.

Here’s what to focus on when choosing a supplement.

• Evidence-forward ingredients: Magnesium glycinate or taurate for calm + GI comfort; avoid defaulting to citrate/oxide if you’re sensitive.
• Gentle calmatives: Ingredients like L-theanine and glycine ease mental chatter.
• Transparent dosing (no guesswork): Exact milligrams listed per ingredient. Avoid proprietary blends that hide amounts.
• Clean, minimal labels: Short excipient lists. Limit artificial colors/sweeteners. Powders should keep sugar and sugar alcohols modest.
• Verified quality: cGMP manufacturing and third-party testing; NSF/Informed Sport adds confidence (especially for athletes).
• Low next-day drag: If melatonin makes you groggy, consider melatonin-free formulas for nightly use.
• A format you’ll actually take: Capsule simplicity vs. a tasty powder ritual - adherence beats theory every time.

Formulation Purity & Transparency

Our first major category compares sleep supplements on the basis of their purity and transparency. That is, are they actually what they say they are, and are they saying it clearly?

Here’s how the consumer reviews stacked up.

What we compared: ingredient forms, label clarity, excipients, and testing disclosures.

🥇 Winner: Thorne, for best-in-class simplicity and ingredient quality with minimal excipients. Thorne is NSF Certified for Sport, meaning it undergoes rigorous third-party testing to verify label accuracy and purity.

🥈 Momentous also excels here with NSF and Informed Sport certifications, offering a high degree of trust for athletes.

❌ Calm uses Magnesium Carbonate, which converts to citrate in the gut. While transparent, it includes flavorings and sweeteners (stevia) that purists might want to avoid.

❌ Magnesium Breakthrough contains a proprietary blend in some formulations and marketing that can be heavy on hype over transparent sourcing details compared to clinical brands like Thorne.

Effectiveness for Wind-Down & Sleep Quality

A sleep aid is no good if it doesn’t actually aid your sleep, right? But performance for sleep supplements is two-fold: does it help you fall asleep, and does it help you stay asleep?

What we compared: ease of falling asleep, overnight stability, morning clarity, and adherence (do you take it nightly?).

🥇 Winner: Beam, for the best mix of on-ramp calm + a ritual you won’t skip. It comes in both a pill and "hot cocoa" form to help you easily integrate it into your nightly routine.

🥈 Magnesium Breakthrough performs well for deep sleep support due to its multi-form magnesium blend, though some users find the capsule count high.

❌ Calm is great for general relaxation but lacks the targeted sleep-specific stack (like Reishi or L-Theanine) found in more robust formulas, making it less effective for severe sleep struggles.

❌ Marea is excellent for hormonal support but may be too niche for general sleep issues not related to PMS or menstrual cycles.

Side Effects & Tolerability

It isn’t just about sleep, after all. Some products come with unappealing side effects like gastrointestinal pain or a sluggish sleep supplement ‘hangover.’

We looked through dozens of user reviews to figure out which supplements go down the smoothest.

What we compared: GI comfort, sweetness/aftertaste, and next-day grogginess.

🥇 Winner: Thorne, for the cleanest tolerability profile with minimal additives and low GI complaints. Their use of Magnesium Bisglycinate is widely recognized as the gentlest form on the stomach.

🥈 Beam uses Nano Hemp and Reishi which are generally well-tolerated, though some users may be sensitive to the texture of the powder if not mixed well.

❌ Calm relies on magnesium carbonate/citrate, which is a known osmotic laxative. Many reviews cite "loose stools" or GI distress if the dose is even slightly too high.

❌ Magnesium Breakthrough can also cause digestive movement due to the high potency of varying magnesium forms, requiring users to titrate up slowly.

Price & Convenience (Real-World Value)

What we compared: cost per effective serving, subscribe-and-save, portability, and how easy it is to make the habit stick.

Pricing varies by retailer, size, and subscription. Use per-serving math when comparing.

🥇 Winner: Beam, for best value-to-adherence ratio. While the upfront cost is higher, the form factor options- capsules and powder - make consistency easy no matter your preference, preventing the waste of buying supplements you forget to take.

🥈 Calm is the most budget-friendly per serving, widely available at almost any grocery store or pharmacy.

❌ Momentous and Thorne are premium-priced.

❌ Marea is a specialized subscription product, which can be less convenient for those who just want to grab a bottle as needed without a commitment.

Pick the Path You’ll Stick With

‍If you want the cleanest, most tolerable magnesium-forward option, choose Thorne. If you want the strongest wind-down effect with a nightly ritual you’ll actually look forward to, choose Beam. The others have clear niches - Magnesium Breakthrough for multi-chelate fans, Momentous for athlete-grade stacks, Marea for gentle, women-first support, and Calm for a budget-friendly powder - but for most people, the decision comes down to clean simplicity (Thorne) vs. ritual-driven performance (Beam).

Our take: Consistency beats everything. Pick the one you’ll take every night.