Supplements for Sleep Holland and Barrett review: is it worth it for lifters?

One shelf, three legal categories: the traditional herbal registrations and what their packs honestly say, the food supplements and the claims they may carry, and the formulas that blend both

A high street health retailer's sleep shelf is reviewed here by sorting it before reading it, because the shelf holds three legal categories of product side by side, each may say a different thing about sleep, and a lifter who reads the fronts of the tubs without knowing which category each is in has been told three things in one voice. The first category is the traditional herbal registration, and on a sleep shelf it is valerian, lavender oil and passionflower, sometimes hops. The medicines regulator registers these under the traditional herbal scheme, which permits a herbal medicine with a long history of use to be sold for a stated purpose, here the temporary relief of sleep disturbances, on the basis of safety and quality evidence and that history, with proof of efficacy not required; the registration's own wording, printed on the pack, says the product is used for the purpose exclusively based upon long-standing use as a traditional remedy, which is the most honest sentence on the shelf and the one least often read. The trials that exist for valerian are small and mixed, lavender oil has a few on anxiety-related sleep, and passionflower has almost none; a lifter buying a registered herbal is buying tradition and safety, which is exactly what the pack says, and is not buying evidence, which the pack also says.

The second category is the food supplement, and on a sleep shelf it is magnesium above all, with glycine, 5-HTP, tart cherry, chamomile and lemon balm in capsules or powders around it. A food supplement may carry only the authorised health claims for the nutrients it contains, and no nutrient has an authorised claim about sleep, so the entire food supplement half of the sleep shelf is sold on a word its labels may not use. Magnesium's claims are real and are not sleep: normal nervous system function, normal psychological function, normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, which make it an honest evening habit and not a sleep product, read for its elemental dose and form like any magnesium. Glycine at 3g improved rated sleep quality in small Japanese trials, a result with no claim and a dose a glycinate mineral does not deliver. Tart cherry has small trials of juice concentrate reporting modest gains in sleep time, no claim, and a capsule dose that bears no relation to the juice volumes studied. 5-HTP is a serotonin precursor sold as a supplement with no claim, no sleep trial of note, and an interaction with antidepressant medicines that a pharmacist would mention and a shelf does not. Chamomile and lemon balm are teas in capsules. The third category is the sleep formula: a blend of a mineral with two or three of the supplements and sometimes a herbal, under a name that says sleep, night, calm or rest, with the ingredients listed as a proprietary blend that states the total milligrams and not the dose of each, so that the one ingredient with authorised claims is present at an amount nobody can judge and the rest at amounts nobody can compare with the trials; the formula's name implies what neither category it borrows from may state, and its label is the least reviewable on the shelf.

The sort applied tub by tub, the diary that decides the complaint, when it is a doctor's matter, the mineral read for its label, and the verdict

Applied tub by tub, the sort takes seconds and changes what each label means. A tub with a registration number and the traditional-use sentence is a herbal medicine: read it for what it honestly says, which is tradition and safety, and buy it only as that, for a few nights of a temporary disturbance, which is its registered purpose. A tub with the words food supplement and a nutrient reference value table is a supplement: read it for its elemental dose, its form, its pence per day at the labelled serving and its actual claims, and ignore the sleep word on the front, which the label may not make. A tub with a sleep name and a proprietary blend is a formula: turn it over, look for the dose of each ingredient, and when the label gives a blend total instead, put it back, because a product whose parts cannot be judged cannot be reviewed and is usually the most expensive per day on the shelf for exactly that reason. Before any of the three categories is bought, the sleep diary decides the complaint: two weeks of onset, night waking and rated quality, which usually shows the problem is the afternoon caffeine, the evening session or the bedroom, none of which the shelf sells a product for, and which separates a lifter's normal poor week from the pattern that matters. When the second column, waking in the night, has run three nights a week for three months, the complaint is chronic insomnia and a doctor's conversation, with cognitive behavioural therapy first-line in the guidelines and no product on any shelf a substitute; and a sleep complaint arriving with low mood, with snoring and pauses a partner has noticed, or with daytime sleepiness that makes driving unsafe is a referral rather than a purchase.

The one product on the shelf this guide would buy is the mineral, read for its label with the sleep word taken off: the worked example, {FL}, two capsules with the evening meal, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, carrying the authorised claims for normal nervous system and psychological function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue and no claim about sleep because none exists, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium with the certificate on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, placed in the evening because the meal is there and a mineral that contributes to normal nervous system function sits reasonably at the end of the day. The verdict for a lifter on the retailer's sleep shelf is a verdict by category: worth it for the mineral read for what its label says; not worth it for the herbals bought as if their registration were a trial, though honest when bought as what the pack says for the few nights it says; not worth it for the formulas whose parts cannot be judged; and never a substitute for the diary that names the complaint or for the doctor who treats the one that has lasted.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Are Holland and Barrett sleep supplements worth it for lifters?

A high street health retailer's sleep shelf holds three legal categories that may each say something different: traditional herbal registrations such as valerian and lavender, registered for temporary sleep disturbance on long use rather than trials and honest about it on the pack; food supplements such as magnesium, glycine, 5-HTP and tart cherry, which may carry only nutrient claims and none about sleep because no nutrient has one; and sleep formulas that blend both under a proprietary dose; for a lifter the shelf is worth it for the mineral read for what its label says, not for herbals bought as if trial-backed or formulas whose parts cannot be judged, and never instead of the sleep diary.

What does a traditional herbal registration mean on a sleep product?

That the medicines regulator has registered the herbal medicine under the traditional herbal scheme, which permits a product with a long history of use to be sold for a stated purpose, here the temporary relief of sleep disturbances, on the basis of safety and quality evidence and that history, without proof of efficacy; the pack states that the product is used for the purpose exclusively based upon long-standing use as a traditional remedy, which is the most honest sentence on the shelf: a buyer is buying tradition and safety and is told so, and is not buying trial evidence and is told that too.

Does tart cherry or 5-HTP help you sleep?

Tart cherry juice concentrate has small trials reporting modest gains in sleep time and efficiency, attributed to its melatonin and phytochemical content, with no authorised claim and with capsule doses on a shelf bearing little relation to the juice volumes studied; 5-HTP is a serotonin precursor sold as a food supplement with no claim, no sleep trial of note, and an interaction with antidepressant and some migraine medicines that a pharmacist would raise and a shelf does not, so a lifter on any such medicine leaves it and asks a pharmacist before any serotonin precursor.

Why do sleep formulas use proprietary blends?

Because a blend lets a label state the total milligrams of several ingredients without stating the dose of each, which hides whether the one ingredient with authorised claims, usually magnesium, is present at a meaningful elemental amount and whether the others are anywhere near the doses the small trials used; the formula's name, sleep, night, calm or rest, implies what neither the herbal nor the supplement category may state, its label is the least reviewable on the shelf, and it is usually the most expensive per day for exactly that reason, so a lifter turns it over, finds no per-ingredient doses, and puts it back.

Should I take magnesium from the sleep shelf?

Only for what its label says, which is not sleep: magnesium's authorised claims are normal nervous system function, normal psychological function, normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and no food supplement may claim an effect on sleep; read the tub for its elemental dose against the 375mg NRV rather than the compound weight, its form, with glycinate or citrate better absorbed than the oxide common on shelves, pence per day at the labelled serving and whether a certificate for the batch is available, and take it with the evening meal as an honest evening habit rather than a sleep product.

Sources

1. The Traditional Herbal Registration scheme: herbal medicines with long traditional use may be registered on safety and quality evidence without proof of efficacy, sitting between food supplements and licensed medicines. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/herbal-medicines-granted-a-traditional-herbal-registration-thr
2. The GB claims register, magnesium entries: magnesium contributes to a reduction of tiredness and fatigue, normal psychological function, normal nervous system function, normal muscle function and electrolyte balance, among others. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
3. The tart cherry and sleep literature: small trials of tart cherry juice concentrate reporting modest increases in sleep time and efficiency, attributed to its melatonin and phytochemical content, with no authorised health claim. PubMed record
4. The glycine and sleep literature: small Japanese trials gave 3g of free glycine before bed to adults with sleep complaints and reported better subjective sleep quality and less daytime sleepiness, with a lowered core body temperature through peripheral blood flow proposed as the mechanism; no trial has tested collagen-supplied glycine on sleep. PubMed record

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