The Sleep Supplement Reality Index
Clinical trials tell you what works under controlled conditions. Reddit tells you what people actually experience, in their own words, at their own doses. The Reality Index is our original dataset covering both halves — built by mining every top post about twelve sleep supplements across five sleep communities. Cited by us, citable by anyone.
Latest report Report #002 — October 2026 1,645 posts re-scored. The September ranking held almost perfectly — glycine still 97%, ashwagandha still last. One mover: tart cherry. Read the report →
Current standings (October 2026)
| Supplement | Posts | User approval |
|---|---|---|
| Magnesium | 216 | 81% |
| L-Theanine | 215 | 81% |
| Ashwagandha | 213 | 71% |
| Melatonin | 202 | 83% |
| CBD | 198 | 78% |
| GABA | 188 | 79% |
| Valerian root | 185 | 76% |
| Apigenin | 178 | 77% |
| 5-HTP | 157 | 84% |
| Tart cherry | 131 | 85% |
| Reishi | 130 | 84% |
| Glycine | 56 | 97% |
Approval = positive ÷ (positive + negative) posts containing explicit outcome language. Dataset generated October 1, 2026 · September edition.
Head-to-head matchups
Every supplement pair compared on community data — approval, volume, and who each fits. All 66 matchups →
Community Notes — your outcome, in the next edition
Took something we track? Send us your outcome — supplement, dose, weeks tried, and your honest verdict (worked / nothing / side effects). The best entries get quoted by name in the next monthly edition, alongside the Reddit data. Real outcomes from real readers: that's the index, grown up.
Why we publish this
Most supplement content is written from the same ten studies, or from nothing at all. Community experience is the missing dataset — nobody had packaged it, so we did. If you write about sleep supplements and want a citable number for what users report, this page is the source.
Writing about sleep more broadly? Our sleep statistics hub collects the most-cited numbers from CDC, RAND, and clinical research — each with its original source. Journalists and bloggers can grab ready-made citation formats and embeds here.
Editions
- October 2026 — Report #002 (current)
- September 2026 — Report #001 (baseline edition)
New edition monthly. Trend lines begin with the October 2026 report.