The book “Healing Pain and Injury” has a whole chapter on sleep titled “Sleep: The Greatest Healer”. It has a table on page 323 listing some supplements that its author Dr. Maud Nerman thinks is helpful for sleep.
It includes …
- vitamin B complex
- vitamin D3
- calcium
- magnesium
- l-theanine amino acid (Dr. Whitaker’s Restful Night Essentials)
- melatonin
- Bach Flower Rescue Remedy
Book also reports the following as “Snooze foods”…
Bananas, Milk, Almonds, Cherries, Turkey and crackers.
Book reports the following as “Insomniac foods” (meaning should not eat if you want to sleep)…
Alcohol, Caffeine, Nicotine, Foods high in fat, complex protein
Personal opinion:
Personally, I don’t consume milk or crackers due to its casein and gluten respectively. I agree that cherries is good for sleep. Tart cherry juice works too.
While I agree that alcohol and caffeine is counter productive to sleep, I do not believe that to be true about fat (especially natural fat) and complex protein. In fact, on the contrary, I have heard reports that fat helped with sleep. Just make sure you don’t have dinner closer than two to three hours before bed.
As with all supplements, keep in mind that not all supplements are right for everyone and check with your doctor first. Be careful of calcium, see why. It really should be taken with vitamin K2. And men may not need calcium. Before taking Vitamin D3, you level should be checked and monitored. Too high or too low of Vitamin D is not good.
Melatonin is an hormone and therefore can mess with the body’s own feedback mechanism if overused.
But I do think B complex (being water soluble) and magnesium are fairly safe. Magnesium is a relaxation mineral.