Here we have an in-depth review of SugarBear Sleep Vitamins and their ingredients, side effects, benefits, and more.
This product is designed to help:
- Sleep faster
- Improve the quality of sleep
- Promote feelings of relaxation
The product features classic sleep vitamins like melatonin, lemon balm, and l-theanine. It’s clear Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins did their homework in regards to choosing the right ingredients for helping you fall asleep.
That said, some of the ingredients in this product are a part of a proprietary blend. You can’t tell their individual doses.
Not only that, but some ingredients are underdosed. This brings up the question: will Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins actually help you sleep?
There’s only one way to find out!
How to Use
Usage is simple: just take 2 “gummy vitamins” per day.
Ideally, you shouldn’t take this product early in the day since it can make you feel drowsy and sleepy.
You might wonder, should you take Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins with or without food?
My suggestion is to take it with food. Preferably with your last meal before bed.
The reason being is, some of the ingredients in the product (e.g. l-theanine) are better absorbed with fat.
How Long Does The Bottle Last?
One bottle of SugarBear Sleep Vitamins has 60 gummy tablets.
So if you take 2 tablets per day, it will last you one month.
Considering that the price of one bottle is around $30, the cost will add up if you use it month after month.
But if the ingredients are of high quality, then the price tag will surely be justified for most people. Let’s see if that’s the case:
SugarBear Sleep Vitamins – Ingredients
Unfortunately the product has a disappointing ingredient profile.
The only positive thing about this product is melatonin.
This supplement contains 6mg of melatonin. This is a heavy dose which should make it easy for you to fall asleep.
As for other ingredients, we have L-theanine and magnesium oxide are both underdosed.
Worse yet, magnesium oxide is the poorest form of magnesium in terms of bioavailability and absorption – your body can’t utilize it effectively.
On the other hand, we have ingredients like sodium which serve no purpose in improving sleep quality. On the contrary, sodium disrupts your sleep, as you’ll see below.
But the worst of all is the proprietary blend in this product.
Hint: Proprietary blends contain a mix of ingredients which don’t show their individual dosages.
You’re basically playing a roulette every time you take these vitamins. You don’t know whether you’re getting optimal doses of ingredients or not.
Worse yet, the proprietary blend could have too much of a certain ingredient without you knowing. This can lead to negative side effects.
Let’s take a closer look at each ingredient, shall we?
Vitamin B6 (2mg)
Vitamin B6 plays a role in over 150 enzymatic processes in your body. (1)
These include absorbing fat, carbs, and protein from food, along with affecting your hormones and the immune system.
One of the hormones that vitamin B6 helps regulate is melatonin. (2)
Your brain secretes melatonin to help you fall asleep at night.
However, a deficiency in vitamin B6 can cause problems with melatonin production. It can also cause insomnia and depression. (3)
This was a solid choice by Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins’ manufacturers. Getting enough vitamin B6 every day is essential for having a sound sleep.
This product contains 2mg of vitamin B6, which is 118% of your daily value.
That said, supplemental vitamin B6 could have lower absorption than the one you’d get from food.
As a result, this dosage might not be optimal for covering any nutritional gaps you might have regarding this vitamin.
Melatonin (6mg)
What is a sleeping supplement without melatonin in it?
The answer is, not a good sleep supplement – so we’re happy to see that Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins have included this essential ingredient in their product.
Melatonin, as I briefly said, is a hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle.
It’s also a powerful antioxidant and free radical scavenger.
Your brain has its own internal clock which regulates when the body is going to secrete melatonin.
In an ideal scenario, people should expose themselves to daily light early in the morning. This resets your internal clock. And tells your body it’s wakey-wakey time.
Then, once it gets dark, the brain converts a hormone called serotonin to melatonin.
However, many people today have deprived themselves of natural light due to their modern lifestyles.
As a result, their brain is tricked into not knowing when it’s time to secrete melatonin. This then leads to a whole host of sleep issues that modern man is faced with.
Luckily, there are ways to improve your sleep, easily and effectively. And taking melatonin is one of them.
Meta-analysis reviews have found that melatonin makes you fall asleep faster, along with increasing the duration and quality of sleep. (4)
As for the dosage, you only need about 0.5mg of melatonin to help you fall asleep.
Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins made sure that nothing was lacking here, packing a heavy dose of 6mg of melatonin.
Magnesium Oxide (200mcg)
Magnesium is usually a great addition to sleep supplements because it’s shown to relax the neuromuscular system.
However, Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins have included the worst form of magnesium possible – oxide.
Not only is this an ineffective form of magnesium, but it’s also known for causing diarrhea.
To add salt to injury, this product only contains 200 micrograms of magnesium, which is a miniscule amount.
For comparison, the daily requirement for magnesium is set at 310-420 milligrams. This is more than 1000 times than what this product has. (5)
They could’ve just skipped magnesium here altogether – it wouldn’t make any difference.
L-Theanine (30mg)
L-theanine is a natural compound found in green tea.
It’s shown to promote GABA production. GABA is a neurotransmitter that calms your nervous system. (6)
L-theanine also promotes alpha brain waves. These are linked to states of relaxation and creativity.
There’s bad news, though: Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins only contains 30mg of l-theanine.
According to Examine.com, l-theanine should be taken in doses between 100-200mg for optimal effects on sleep.
So, it’s questionable how effective l-theanine from this product will be.
Sodium (10mg)
Including sodium in a sleep supplement has been pretty much unheard of. Until now.
It doesn’t take a doctor to tell you that too much sodium is bad.
And most of us get more than enough sodium in our diet.
Yes, a healthy dose of sodium is critical to numerous bodily functions.
However, studies have found that consuming a lot of salt can actually disrupt sleep. (7)
So if you already eat a diet that’s got plenty of sodium, you might want to stay clear from supplements that contain this ingredient.
Rest Well Blend (Proprietary Blend)
Rest Well Blend contains:
- 5-HTP – helps your brain produce serotonin, the pre-cursor to melatonin.
- Lemon Balm Leaf – shown to promote sleep and relaxation.
- Passion Flower – known for its anti-anxiety effects, which can indirectly calm the body and improve sleep.
- Valerian Root – similarly to lemon balm and passion flower, valerian root is commonly used to help with panic attacks and insomnia.
As we said, the ingredients in this blend don’t show their individual dosages.
You can only see their combined dose.
This is an unfair policy by Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins’ producers.
If they were honest and transparent, they would list all of the ingredients and their respective dosages for you to see.
Customer Reviews
It looks like many customers using Sugar Bear Sleeping Vitamins are happy with the product.
The majority reported improvements in sleep quality and duration.
This makes us conclude that this product does work, however, most of the credit goes to melatonin here, since other ingredients don’t have optimal doses.
In other words, you’re better off purchasing a melatonin supplement which will have the same effect and will be much cheaper.
Here are some of the customer reports on Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins:
“I never write reviews but I had to because I loved these so much! I got a trial size with my hair vitamins I ordered! I’ve always had issues falling asleep at night, my anxiety always seems to ramp up at night. I have always just dealt with it but since I got these as a free trial I gave them a shot! LET ME TELL YOU, I absolutely love them, they calm make me feel calm and relaxed and next thing you know I’m asleep! They don’t make me feel groggy the next day and I feel well rested! I will always keep these in my house.” – Brittany (Amazon Customer)
“I am so bummed. I’ve tried and love Sugar Bear Hair Vitamins. So I was super excited to try their multivitamin and their sleep vitamins. Because they are so expensive I had to choose. I chose Sleep Vitamin. They are nowhere near as good tasting or effective as the blue Sugar Bear Hair. So bummed I wasted $30.” – Robert Bures (Amazon Customer)
Side Effects
We haven’t found any reports of side effects from taking Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins.
This doesn’t come as a surprise since most of the ingredients in this supplement are safe.
That said, the proprietary blend in this product doesn’t disclose the doses of its ingredients.
As a result, you can’t tell if the dosages in the blend are too high. For example, too much 5-HTP can cause serotonin syndrome in extreme cases, especially if you combine them with antidepressant medication.
That’s why if you’re on any kind of medication, talk with your doctor before taking Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins.
Conclusion
Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins contain a high dose of melatonin which will help you fall asleep.
And that’s about as good as it gets.
Other ingredients in this product are either underdosed. Or serve no purpose in improving your sleep.
What’s worse, this supplement contains a proprietary blend.
The dosage of each separate ingredient within the blend is hidden, which brings up a question: what are they trying to hide?
Many customer reviews on Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins are positive. People say that this supplement helps them fall asleep.
However, this positive effect most likely stems from melatonin alone, since other ingredients appear to be ineffective.
So it’s questionable how worth it is to pay $30 dollars for a product with only one ingredient that works.
You’d probably be better of just buying melatonin itself, which is a much more economical route.
Ultimately, Sugar Bear Sleep Vitamins is a mixed bag of everything. Both good and bad.
It’s not enough to just throw in a couple of good ingredients and hope it will work.
Instead, you need a formula with proven ingredients – and you should always expect premium results from a product that has a premium price tag.
References
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National Institutes of Health - Vitamin B6. (source)
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Oregon State University - Vitamin B6. (source)
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Comparison of nutrient intake by sleep status in selected adults in Mysore, India. (source)
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Meta-analysis: melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders. (source)
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National Institutes of Health - Magnesium. (source)
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The neuropharmacology of L-theanine(N-ethyl-L-glutamine): a possible neuroprotective and cognitive enhancing agent. (source)
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The effect of salt on night sleep. (source)