Do you have trouble getting to sleep? Not just once in a while, but regularly? There are likely several reasons for this. It could be that you are working (or playing) until late, and with your heart and mind racing, it’s hard to switch off right away. Or maybe you’re just relaxing watching videos or scrolling through social media on your phone…and you can’t stop yourself. Maybe you’ve been traveling, or shifting to a new schedule, and you need to adjust your sleep cycle. There is lots of advice (both good and lame) for helping people get more and better sleep, but for me, the best solution is a mild sleeping aide in the form of melatonin gummies.

Why Melatonin?

Melatonin is the chemical that your body naturally produces to make you feel sleepy. But so many aspects of modern life can mess with the rythmic production of melatonin. The best long-term solution is to fix the cause of the sleeplessness, but that’s not always possible or practical for the short or medium term. Plenty of medicine can make you feel sleepy, and you can take NyQuil or similar just to help you sleep when you’re not even sick. That might be okay once in a long while, but I (and medical doctors) don’t recommend it, especially for any prolonged period. The main problem is that these drugs use artificial chemicals to force your body to sleep, whereas a melatonin suppliment helps your body to sleep with its natural chemical signal. If you’re not tired at all, then taking some melatonin won’t make you pass out, but if you are a bit (but not quite enough) sleepy, then a little melatonin boost can be exactly what you need to actually drift off to sleep.

Why Gummies?

You can get melatonin supplements in a number of forms: capsules, tablets, powders, liquids, and gummies. I’ve tried some pill types before, but these rely 100% on your stomach and below to digest them. I generally prefer gummies because the chewing action and saliva jump starts the digestive process and provides faster and more natural digestion. Also, it reminds me of candy, which I also like. Obviously, if you don’t like gummies (even ones without gelatin and/or sugar), then my recommendation isn’t going to apply to you. But if you’ve never considered gummies as a good form for taking supplements, then I strongly recommend giving it a try. It’s not just for kids anymore.

Overall Recommendations

I’ll get into some specific details and comparisons below, but first I’ll provide my overall recommendations. VitaFusion’s SleepWell Melatonin Gummies are by far the best product on the market (that I’ve tried). They taste great, have a satisfying texture, and are very effective in helping you sleep at night. They are not vegetarian, so if that’s important for you, then T-RQ’s Sleep Gummies are a reasonable second place option. 21st Centrury’s VitaJoy product is just so horrible that you should avoid it despite being much cheaper and similarly effective. The melatonin gummies by Natrol and Force Factor are both reasonable options as back-ups with larger package sizes.

Spec Comparison

The table below summaries and compares some of the supplement facts across these five brands. They all have a serving size of 2 gummies (so you can take one if that’s enough for you), and they all have 15 calories per serving. Note that VitaFusion’s SleepWell uses sugar alcohol instead of normal sugar. Also note that it is (probably) the only that is not vegetarian because it contains gelatin (Force Factor’s product doesn’t list any non-vegetarian ingredients, but doesn’t claim to be vegetarian either). Note also that the price per serving is similar across all the products except 21st Century’s VitaJoy, which is definitely a lower-end product (see more below).

Brand	VitaFusion	T-RQ	21 Century	Natrol	Force Factor
Product Name	SleepWell	Sleep	VitaJoy	Gummies	Somnapure
Price (on iHerb)	$7.69	6.95	9.09	10.18	16.80
Servings per Bottle	30	30	60	45	60
Price per Serving	$0.26	$0.23	$0.15	$0.23	$0.28
Melatonin {mg)	3	5	5	10	10
Calories	15	15	15	15	15
Sugar (g)	0	3	3	3	3
Sugar Alcohol	4	0	0	0	0
Vegetarian	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Probably

VitaFusion SleepWell

As stated above, my highest recommendation goes to VitaFusion’s SleepWell product. Not only does it taste the best, and have the best texture (good enough to eat as regular candy if not for the melatonin), it also seems to be the most effective despite having the lowest amount of melatonin. Perhaps its effectiveness is due to its inclusion of Passion Flower, Chamomile Flower, and Lemon Balm Leaf extracts. It’s the only product that mentions having other helpful ingredients besides melatonin. I like that it’s sugar free, especially before bedtime, but I don’t really know if sugar alcohol is any better. I personally don’t have a problem with gelatin (like other red pandas, even though I eat a plant-based diet, I’m not a strict vegetarian), but I know some of you do, so if that is a deal-breaker for you, then you should pass this up for my second highest recommendation.

T-RQ Sleep

TR-Q’s Sleep is a product that I’ve only recently started using, but it quickly jumped to my #2 spot due to its taste and texture being the closest to a real gummi despite not having any gelatin. It is still a bit stiff and grainy, but not nearly as much as the others. It is effective enough with its 5mg of melatonin, but without any heavy effect just like it’s supposed to. The artificial strawberry-like flavor is nothing special (you’d never eat these as candy), but nothing off-putting either. It’s slightly cheaper than VitaFusion’s SleepWell, but not enough to make much difference. If you are a vegetarian and/or SleepWell is out of stock, then T-RQ’s simply named Sleep may be your best option.

21st Century Vitajoy

These VitaJoy melatonin gummies by 21st Century are not third on the list because they are the third best, they are here mostly as a warning. I recommend AGAINST buying this product. These taste horribly of overly sweet, super artificial, imitation strawberry flavoring. They don’t taste like strawberries, they taste like really bad strawberry candies made by somebody who has never eaten real strawberries. And the texture is like a tiny heap of sand held together by spiderwebs. Although they have more melatonin than Sleepwell, they are less effective for me. Okay, so there are other melatonin gummies I’ve tried that didn’t make this list, so why bother mentioning the worst of the worst? The reason is because this brand is by far the cheapest per dose and they may lure you in with that. This is not a wholesale bash on 21st Century, their adult multivitamin gummies are great, and so are their budget level iron tablets. But they really dropped the ball on these melatonin gummies. I couldn’t even use up the ones I bought, so don’t buy something that is effectively already garbage when it arrives.

Natrol Gummies

Another option that comes in fake strawberry flavoring is Natrol’s Gummies. These have a strong 10mg melatonin level, but they don’t seem to be more (or less) effective than VitaFusion’s SleepWell or T-RQ’s Sleep…maybe a little more. Although the price per serving is the same as those, the package has 45 instead of 30 servings, and it is not subject to iHerb’s summer ordering restriction, so it’s a good option for stocking up and filling gaps when others are not available. I don’t like or hate the taste or texture; it is tolerable for a vegetarian option. All in all, there is nothing special about these, but they do the job and more readily available, so I end up having them around, and maybe that’s a good idea for you too.

Force Factor Somnapure

These Somnapure Gummies by Force Factor come in the largest package with 60 servings in one bottle, and the highest (by a tiny bit) price per serving. The main attraction of these is that they don’t have the same (bad) artificial strawberry flavor that so many melatonin gummies have. The flavor is still artificial, but it’s different and not as bad. They are on the strong side with 10mg or melatonin per serving, but again, it doesn’t seem to make much difference in effect. The three previous items all explicitly said they are vegetarian, and although these don’t list any animal-related products, they don’t claim to be vegetarian (which in the supplements market they should if they are) so I can’t say either way. Anyway, this is another nice option for stocking up, or as an alternative when your favorite is out of stock, or you just want a different flavor.

Note about Buying Melatonin on iHerb

One of the reasons I’ve tried so many different kinds of melatonin over the years, even after finding one I’m completely satisfied with, is related to three issues in ordering from iHerb. First, I don’t know all the restrictions for everywhere, but for where I live I can only buy a 2-months supply of any single melatonin product. But if you mix brands then it doesn’t count (and they assume you’re using it every day, which isn’t the best way to use melatonin). That, combined with the fact that many of these gummies (and other products) don’t ship in the summer months (because they will melt) means that you can’t buy them from May 1st to September 29th…more than two months. And to make matters worse, iHerb is really, really bad about keeping things in stock (I mean super really horribly bad). They have a feature to notify you by email when the product is back in stock, but it never works (you’ll get notified when it still out of stock and fail to get notified even though it is).

For me iHerb is basically the only way for me to get the kinds of things. And the prices are low, the rewards program is generous, and the delivery is fast and free, even internationally. So there definitely are good reasons to buy from iHerb, but you have to keep these three points in mind, especially when ordering melatonin gummies. In summary:

If you order any of these products from iHerb via my links, then I may earn some “Rewards Credit”. I’m not part of their affiliate program (yet), so I can’t earn any cash, but I can earn store credit to use on my own purchases (which up to a point is as good as cash because it saves me cash). You can also earn reward credit if you refer somebody using your code (mine is KLN315), by writing reviews of your purchases on their site, and various other ways. Although I am often disappointed with iHerb because they are constantly out of stock of things I want, often discontinue selling their best items, and provide really horrible customer service, I am a regular customer and I can (and do) recommend them to people. Especially people living outside the U.S. who want American quality supplements at American low prices.

Is it best for you?

Look, if you have serious sleeping problems, then you might need serious help like sleep therapy, strong medicine, hypnosis, or other such solutions. I am not trying to (nor am I qualified to) diagnose or remedy any serious issues. But just taking more and more melatonin is a bad idea. Taking slightly stronger or weaker melatonin supplements may be meaningful, but as stated above, we’ve not found a strong correlation between the reported mg of melatonin and the strength of the sleepiness effect.