Condition protocol
A sleep stack built on magnesium, glycine, and L-theanine, not melatonin
Three supplements with strong or moderate trial evidence for sleep onset and quality. If you're already on a sedative, the app tells you before you double up.
Melatonin is the reflexive answer to "what should I take for sleep," but it's a hormone, not a mineral, and the trial evidence for magnesium glycinate, glycine, and L-theanine at sleep onset is at least as strong. Stack Almanac's Sleep Optimization protocol leads with those three.
Magnesium glycinate relaxes muscle and raises GABA activity. Glycine at 3g before bed lowers core body temperature, a real trigger for sleep onset, and improves morning alertness in the trials behind it. L-theanine reduces sleep latency without next-day grogginess. Apigenin and tart cherry extract sit alongside as gentler, optional additions.
It surfaces automatically once "insomnia," "sleep disorder," or "sleep" appears in your bio profile, and it checks against sedative medication before recommending anything that stacks sedation on sedation.
The challenges
Melatonin gets reached for first, evidence or not
It works for circadian shift (jet lag, shift work) but the evidence for chronic insomnia is thinner than most people assume, and high-street doses are often 5 to 10x what trials use.
Sedative interactions get missed
Glycine and L-theanine both add sedation on top of benzodiazepines or Z-drugs (zolpidem, zopiclone). If you're on a prescribed sleep medication, that additive effect is worth knowing before you start.
Magnesium form gets picked at random
Oxide and citrate are common on pharmacy shelves. Glycinate is the form with the strongest sleep-specific trial data and the best tolerability, and it's easy to end up with the wrong one.
You can't tell if a change actually moved your sleep
Sleep quality is noisy night to night. Without wearable or subjective tracking against a fixed baseline, a 4-week trial of a new supplement is just a guess.
How Stack Almanac helps
Three supplements with real trial data, not a melatonin default
Magnesium glycinate 400mg (strong evidence) and glycine 3g (strong evidence) as the core, alongside L-theanine 200mg (moderate). Apigenin 50mg and tart cherry extract 500mg sit as optional, gentler additions.
Sedative interaction warnings built in
Log benzodiazepines, Z-drugs, or other sedatives in your bio profile and the stack detail flags the additive sedation risk from magnesium and glycine inline, rather than leaving you to notice grogginess and guess why.
Evidence badges, not marketing claims
Strong, moderate, or emerging shown per item. Magnesium and glycine carry the strongest evidence in this stack; apigenin and tart cherry are moderate, useful additions rather than the headline act.
Matched to your bio profile automatically
Add "insomnia," "sleep disorder," or "sleep" to your health conditions or primary concerns and this protocol surfaces in your Protocols tab, with a note on which of the 5 items you already cover.
Already on melatonin? The Advisor accounts for it
If tart cherry's natural melatonin content is already covering what a synthetic pill was doing, the Advisor notes that overlap rather than stacking both blindly on top of each other.
The Sleep Optimization Protocol
Strong evidence: magnesium, glycine. Moderate: L-theanine, apigenin, tart cherry. £25–40/mo estimated.
The list above is free. This is what isn't.
- Flags the additive sedation risk automatically if you're already on a benzodiazepine or Z-drug.
- Tracks whether it's actually improving your sleep, not just whether you remembered to take it.
- The Advisor checks it against melatonin or anything else you're already taking, so you're not doubling up blind.
Free 7-day trial · no credit card required