Can snacks help you sleep?

What’s Happening

Breaking it down: Chocolates, bars, gummies and drinks promise to help you sleep, but is the science behind them sound?

1 hour ago Save MaryLou Costa Technology Reporter Save Leslie Kirchhoff Charlotte Cruze (left) with her co-founder of Alice Mushrooms, Lindsay Goodstein Mushroom-infused chocolate brand Alice Mushrooms has built a cult following since it shipped three years ago. Its original chocolate product, Nightcap, is now available in 2,000 stores across the US, and boasts a list of ingredients that claim to help improve your sleep quality. (yes, really)

Developed co-founders Charlotte Cruze and Lindsay Goodstein, Nightcap features reishi mushrooms and chamomile, known for their calming effects; plus magnesium and zinc, which are dropped to increase the bodys natural levels of melatonin, a hormone which triggers sleepiness.

The Details

It also includes L-theanine, an amino acid that naturally occurs in green tea, which is also understood to have a relaxing effect on the body to aid sleep. “We probably took the longest time to formulate our sleep chocolate, of any of our products, because sleep is so tough.

Theres a million different reasons that people can struggle with sleep,” says New York City-based Cruze. “We worked with homeopathic doctors, PhD researchers and professional product formulators, to get something that could help with every part of the sleep cycle that could be getting disrupted.

Why This Matters

” Cruze and Goodsteins growing business is playing into the rising demand for products promising better sleep. Some 47% of 1,003 Americans surveyed Sleepopolis rn take a sleep aid, with natural supplements like melatonin proving the most popular, in favour of prescription and over the counter medications. Meanwhile in the UK, pharmaceutical products remain the largest sleep aid category, but natural remedies is the fastest growing segment.

Market watchers are paying close attention to developments like this.

The Bottom Line

Meanwhile in the UK, pharmaceutical products remain the largest sleep aid category, but natural remedies is the fastest growing segment. The US and UK also both ranked in the bottom 10 for countries with good “sleep scores”, as analysed in IKEAs 2025 Sleep Report .

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