7 Best Melatonin Brands for a Good Night’s Sleep (2024 Review)

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Good sleep is crucial to ensure you stay on top of your game every day. But with the stress and fatigue of modern life, your body may struggle to relax and get enough sleep every night. There’s no shame in seeking external help to ensure your sleep cycles remain intact.

Prescription sleep medications work, but they may be addictive or make you feel drowsy the next day. On the other hand, melatonin supplements promote the natural sleep cycles without making you feel drugged or requiring a prescription.

If you want to find out which is the best melatonin brand for sleep, check out the detailed reviews in the following sections. There’s also a buyer’s guide at the end to answer any concerns you might have with melatonin supplements.

Don't have the time read the entire review?

Here's a quick look at our top choices for the best melatonin brand for sleep

Best Overall Choice: Source Naturals Melatonin CLICK HERE FOR PRICE
Runner-Up Option: Natrol Melatonin Time Release Tablets CLICK HERE FOR PRICE
Best Value for the Money: Physician’s Choice Sleep Aid with Valerian Root 5 mg CLICK HERE FOR PRICE
Most Budget-Friendly: Nature’s Bounty Melatonin CLICK HERE FOR PRICE
Most Popular Melatonin Supplement: Nature Made Melatonin CLICK HERE FOR PRICE
Best for a Groggy-Free Morning: Just Potent Melatonin CLICK HERE FOR PRICE
Most Vegetarian-Friendly Melatonin: Puritan’s Pride Super Strength Melatonin CLICK HERE FOR PRICE

Best Melatonin Brand for Sleep Reviews

1. Best Overall Choice: Source Naturals Melatonin

Source Naturals is committed to the health and well-being of their customers, and that passion comes through in everything they do. They manufacture their own supplements, and control all aspects of production, from seeking organic and non-GMO ingredients when available, formulating their own products, and testing for quality.

For herbal supplements, they buy whole herbs and mill them themselves, verifying the purity and authenticity of every raw material they use. Their in-house laboratory and quality control team thoroughly test every ingredient to ensure purity and potency, and finished products are also thoroughly tested for quality and potency before they are packaged.

Source Naturals Melatonin is made of melatonin, and has no yeast, dairy, egg, gluten, soy, or wheat. It is also free of salt, artificial colors, flavors, and fragrances. It is available in a natural orange-flavored liquid, lozenges, tablets, capsules, and gummies, so you can choose the style that suits you best. Vegans should consider Source Naturals Vegan True Melatonin.

PROS

  • High-quality melatonin
  • Available in a wide range of delivery systems so you can choose the best for you
  • Free of artificial ingredients, colors, flavors, and fragrances

CONS

  • Relatively expensive

2. Runner-Up Option: Natrol Melatonin Time Release Tablets

Best Melatonin Brand for Sleep | Runner-Up Option | Natrol Melatonin Time Release Tablets

Natrol was founded in 1980, and consistently earns the highest level “A” rating from the Natural Products Association. They have an industry-leading quality assurance program that rigorously tests products throughout the supply chain, from exhaustive supplier screening to sourcing the best ingredients.

They also carefully monitor costs, focusing on the right things and executing them the right way, so that they make the best use of resources to deliver high quality products at an affordable price. This melatonin supplement is time-released for natural, relaxing sleep, and is a great runner-up option.

The Natrol Melatonin Time Release Tablets combine natural melatonin with Vitamin B-6. Alone, both ingredients help to promote deep sleep, but they also work synergistically together, where the Vitamin B-6 improves absorption of melatonin supplements, while helping the body synthesize melatonin naturally. This supplement has a time-release formula that helps you fall asleep quickly and then stay asleep throughout the night. It contains no artificial colors or flavors, no added sugars, and no preservatives. It is also free of common allergens like milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, or yeast. These tablets are available in strengths including 1, 3, or 5 mg of melatonin.

PROS

  • Combination of melatonin with Vitamin B-6 promotes absorption and longer sleep
  • Made without milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, or yeast
  • No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives
  • Available in three strengths for different needs

CONS

  • No vegan option available

3. Best Value for the Money: Physician’s Choice Sleep Aid with Valerian Root 5 mg

Physician’s Choice Sleep Aid is an award-winning non-GMO formula of natural ingredients. This supplement is US-made and it comes from an FDA-certified facility, complete with third-party testing and the standard control spiel.

As for the active ingredients, Sleep Aid contains pyridoxal-5-phosphate, chamomile, valerian root powder, melatonin, and L-theanine. Each of the ingredients has its own effect on optimal circadian rhythm and better sleep quality.

Pyridoxal-5-phosphate is actually a source of vitamin B6, which promotes the conversion of neurotransmitters responsible for sleep regulation. L-theanine is an amino acid that helps to reduce stress levels, and chamomile and valerian root powder have traditional usage in sleep and wakefulness regulation.

In addition, this melatonin brand is vegan-friendly with benign inactive ingredients of rice powder and vegetable capsules. It’s also allergen and contaminant free.

Here’s what it all means. This sleep aid is designed to help you go to dreamland faster and get a deeper sleep. While fast asleep, this supplement should give you longer regenerative sleep phases and stimulate REM sleep. As a result, you should wake up refreshed and ready to conquer the world (or something like that).

You get 60 capsules per package, which is enough for two months if you take one every day.

PROS

  • Award-winning formula
  • Natural ingredients
  • Vegan/vegetarian-friendly
  • 5 active ingredients

CONS

  • Upper price range

4. Most Budget-Friendly: Nature’s Bounty Melatonin

The Nature’s Bounty Melatonin is affordable, first and foremost. Each softgel contains 5mg of melatonin, and, more importantly, they may be easier to swallow including dry swallowing.

If you are interested in the inactive ingredients, the Nature’s Bounty contains vegetable glycerin, soy lecithin, yellow beeswax, and the likes. They also sound benign enough.

This supplement isn’t labeled as vegetarian or vegan-friendly. It doesn’t contain any animal ingredients, but you may know that cross-contamination is also a factor. If something is made in the same factory that uses animal products, for example, it can’t be labeled as vegetarian- or vegan-friendly.

The Nature’s Bounty Melatonin comes in bottles of 90 softgel capsules, and it’s available in packs of 2 or 4 at a slight discount over individual prices.

PROS

  • Softgel capsules
  • 5mg melatonin
  • Affordable
  • No milk or fish-based ingredients

CONS

  • Some users might have to double the dose or more
Best Melatonin Brand for Sleep | Most Popular Melatonin Supplement | Nature Made Melatonin

Nature Made is one of the most popular brands in the medicinal sleep aids category. But is it the best melatonin brand for sleep? Check out what it has to offer and decide for yourself.

The company has been making supplements for 45 years. This one in particular, the Nature Made Melatonin sports the USP-verified label which attests to the purity and quality of the ingredients. Melatonin is the only active ingredient in this supplement.

The inactive ingredients include dibasic calcium phosphate, sodium starch glycolate, and magnesium stearate. They may aid absorption but they are mostly used as binding agents and are completely safe.

This melatonin brand is primarily designed to help you fall asleep with ease and it works great if you experience disturbed sleep every now and again. On top of that, taking this melatonin supplement should reduce sleep restlessness and result in better overall sleep quality.

The bottle in this review contains 240 tablets which are small and easy to swallow. There is also a 120-tablet bottle. At the low price, this brand offers excellent value for the money indeed.

PROS

  • 240 tablets per bottle
  • 3mg melatonin
  • USP-verified
  • Affordable
  • No preservatives or colorants

CONS

  • 7% RDV of calcium of non-natural sources

6. Best for a Groggy-Free Morning: Just Potent Melatonin

If you need an extra punch to help you sleep better, the Just Potent Melatonin could be what you are looking for. As indicated, each tablet contains 10mg of pharmaceutical-grade melatonin to ensure you doze off faster and wake up fresh the next morning.

Similar to other brands, this supplement is made in the US and free of any GMO ingredients. The melatonin is the only active ingredient, and the rest are stearic acid, croscarmellose sodium, silicon dioxide, cellulose, and magnesium stearate.

The latter ingredients are inactive and heavily regulated by the FDA. For example, croscarmellose sodium is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry.

Considering the price and the number of tablets (120 per bottle), Just Potent is a budget-friendly brand. The recommended daily dosage is one tablet about half an hour before you go to sleep.

PROS

  • 10mg melatonin
  • Pharmaceutical-grade supplement
  • Budget-friendly

CONS

  • Might not help with restlessness

7. Most Vegetarian-Friendly Melatonin: Puritan’s Pride Super Strength Melatonin

Puritan’s Pride has been in business for more than four decades. As indicated in the name Super Strength Melatonin, the supplement contains 10mg of melatonin per serving.

There aren’t any additional active ingredients. The inactive ones include vegetable magnesium stearate and cellulose, silica, and gelatin.

This melatonin supplement doesn’t contain any animal-based ingredients, sodium, gluten, or artificial flavors and sweeteners, which makes it suitable for vegetarians. The Super Strength is a rapid-release melatonin supplement. This means that the pills are broken down in your body as soon as you take them, as compared to extended release. (Naturally, all melatonin supplements are not of the extended release variety, or the users would be sleeping all day.)

And if you are wondering what some of the inactive ingredients do, vegetable magnesium stearate is a binding agent responsible for holding the pill together and its breakdown. Like all other melatonin supplements, you take one pill before bedtime and wait for a few minutes for the effects to kick in.

Aside from easing you into sleep, this supplement is also designed to allow you to sleep longer and improve your rest. Overall, the Puritan’s Pride does the trick and helps you sleep better, but there is one downside. Each pill is almost ¾” long, which certainly isn’t fit for dry swallowing.

PROS

  • Established brand
  • 10mg melatonin
  • Vegetarian-friendly
  • No gluten or artificial sweeteners
  • 120 pills per bottle

CONS

  • Pills are a bit big

Buyers Guide

Melatonin supplements affect your sleep pattern so they shouldn't be taken lightly, even though you don’t need a prescription. This buyer’s guide goes over how melatonin works, how to take it, and the potential side effects.

Melatonin Explained

The pineal gland in the human brain produces melatonin naturally, the hormone responsible for circadian rhythm regulation. Therefore, melatonin tells your body when it’s time to go to sleep.

Under normal circumstances, melatonin levels are low in the daytime and go up gradually from there. The body employs a neat trick to tell the pineal gland when to secrete melatonin. Your retinas are equipped with receptors that detect the amount of light, which signals the size of your iris and also prompts the pineal gland to make more or less melatonin.

But as you already know, this system doesn’t always work as it’s supposed to, especially if you work the graveyard shift or switch time zones.

Dosage and Intake

If you’ve never taken melatonin supplements before, it’s best to take things slow and gradually increase the dose. In fact, taking more than the recommended dose can backfire and disrupt your sleep instead of making it better.

Melatonin supplements contain different amounts of melatonin, which can be as low as 0.5mg per pill and up to 10mg or more. As said, you can start low and see how your body reacts.

Of course, the effective dose may depend on your weight, age, and general health status. In general, one 5mg dose should do the trick for an average adult. But is it habit-forming in long-term use?

It’s not, but if you take it every day, it’s recommended to give it at least a one-week break every two months or so.

Timing

There is no secret to when to take this supplement. You’re supposed to take a pill an hour or 45 minutes before you go to sleep. This allows your body enough time to metabolize and absorb the melatonin for it’s not going to work right away. In any event, check the instructions on the bottle of your particular supplement.

Who Should Take Melatonin Supplements?

Melatonin supplements are suitable for anybody who struggles to sleep well. They work great for shift workers like policemen, medical staff, factory workers, etc. And elderly people whose melatonin levels naturally drop can also benefit from a melatonin supplement. What’s more, these supplements can also help with certain conditions.

For example, they are often given to fibromyalgia and cardiovascular disease patients to supplement their prescribed medications. In addition, they can help with menopausal mood swings and anxiety.

Can Children Take Melatonin?

The above melatonin brands are not recommended for children. That said, studies have shown that melatonin can help with a number of conditions in children such as autism, pervasive developmental disorders, Rett syndrome, etc.

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Melatonin are not recommended for children. But some studies have shown that melatonin can help with a number of conditions.

Needless to say, it’s crucial to consult with a pediatrician or a neurologist to determine if melatonin would be beneficial for a child.

Negative Effects

There haven’t been any reports of severe negative effects from melatonin use. The mild ones may include sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, and headache. But it’s important to note that these usually occur when the recommended dosage is exceeded.

Melatonin-Rich Foods

Certain fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, grapes, walnuts, and cherries contain melatonin. There are also tryptophan-rich foods that promote serotonin production, which in turn stimulates your brain to secrete melatonin.

However, the amount of melatonin in these foods is not the same as found in supplements. In other words, you would probably have to eat buckets of them to get the same amount of melatonin. Compare the cost of one bucket of grapes and one pill of melatonin and you can judge the relative cost-effectiveness.

Can You Naturally Stimulate Melatonin Production?

Exposing yourself to sunlight in the morning may help tune your inner clock. You can try wearing blue-blocking glasses during the night. Protein-rich breakfasts are also known to keep the circadian rhythm in sync. Of course, it’s quite a bit easier to just take one melatonin pill before bedtime.

Final Verdict

So, what is the best melatonin brand for sleep? Without a doubt, the Source Naturals Melatonin is the overall winner. Remember, this supplement contains 5 active ingredients that work together to improve every aspect of your sleep. The vegan- and vegetarian-friendly supplement contains 5mg of melatonin per capsule.

As a premium award-winning brand, it is also in the upper price range. But it’s not overly expensive and quite inconsequential on a per pill basis. After all, you can’t put a price on a good night’s sleep.

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