Methodology
Data
We scanned 373,690 public Reddit comments, May 2026 to October 2026, through the Arctic Shift archive. Coverage by community: r/Anxiety (126 days), r/Nootropics (184 days), r/Stress (184 days), r/Supplements (84 days), r/insomnia (184 days), r/sleep (184 days). r/sleep, r/insomnia and r/Nootropics were read in full; r/Supplements and r/Anxiety were sampled (the first 14 and 21 days of each month), and only comments that mention sleep count there. We found 15,402 ingredient mentions in a sleep context and kept 4,487 owner comments, where the writer says they used the supplement. 2,380 of those express a clear positive, negative or mixed experience; the rest are neutral and count toward volume, not the score.
How comments are classified
- Owner detection: keyword rules look for first-person use ("I take", "I've been on", "started"). Hypothetical or second-hand comments are excluded.
- Sentence windows: sentiment is read only from the sentences naming the ingredient (plus follow-on sentences), so opinions about other products in the same comment do not leak in.
- Stacks: comments listing many supplements at once are not scored, because we cannot tell which one the writer is describing. Comments naming three or more supplements, or a medicine, count half.
- One vote per person per thread: repeated comments by the same author in the same thread count once.
- Marketing removed: 401 comments across our sleep, calm and adaptogen research data matched patterns of coordinated, astroturfed product promotion (repeated brand pushes from new or single-purpose accounts, hidden characters). They were removed before scoring and those products are never recommended here. More campaigns may exist.
- Accuracy: keyword classification is imperfect, and about half of owner comments carry no clear sentiment. Every quote links to the original comment so you can judge it yourself.
The score
Comment weight = (1 + ln(1 + upvotes)) × 2 if posted in the last 12 months × 1.5 if longer than 100 words × 0.5 if shared with other supplements or a medicine.
| Component | Design weight | Used now | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner sentiment | 40% | 50% | Bayesian average of 1–5 owner ratings: (C × m + Σ weighted ratings) / (C + Σ weights), with C = 5 and m = 3.50, the mean across all sleep supplements. |
| Recommendations | 15% | 19% | How often owners actively recommend it to others, scaled 1–5. |
| Tolerability | 25% | 31% | Share of rated owner comments with no unwanted effect (grogginess, headaches, vivid dreams, stomach upset), shrunk toward the average (84%), scaled 1–5. |
| Value for money | 20% | 0% | Not rated: example products differ too much in dose and serving for a fair cost comparison. Its weight is shared out among the other components. |
Thresholds
- An ingredient gets a page with 1+ owner comment. Pages with fewer than 5 owner comments (currently lavender oil capsules and hops) are marked noindex, left out of the sitemap and not ranked.
- Overall score is "Not rated" when there are no rated owner comments.
- We score ingredients, not individual products. A brand gets its own score only with 5+ owner comments naming that brand; otherwise products are listed as examples, not scored.
- Sleep-problem rankings need 3+ rated comments in that context per supplement, and a page is indexed only with 3+ qualifying supplements.
- Comparisons need 5+ owner comments on each side.
What we exclude
- Drugs: prescription medicines and OTC sleep drugs (Benadryl, ZzzQuil, Unisom and other diphenhydramine or doxylamine products) are never scored or ranked, and melatonin comments that mix in a sleep medicine are not scored. See context only.
- Substances: kratom, phenibut, tianeptine, kava, kanna, CBD, CBN, THC and cannabis products are excluded entirely; comments naming them are never scored.
- Adaptogens and mushrooms: ashwagandha, reishi and similar products are not scored here; they will be covered on adaptogenic.ai (coming soon).
- Quotes: we do not show quotes that describe curing, treating or healing a disease, name a drug, name a flagged marketing brand, or contain links.
Facts and sources
Factual statements cite NIH pages (Office of Dietary Supplements, NCCIH, NHLBI, MedlinePlus) or PubMed records. We list studies so you can read them; we do not rate clinical evidence.
Products and affiliate links
Products shown under each ingredient are examples. Every one was re-checked on its Amazon product page on 2026-11-04; listings that did not resolve to the named product were dropped. They are not ranked by Reddit. Links include our Amazon Associates tag; this never changes a score. Images are our own illustrations, not product photos.
Data generated 2026-11-04. Re-scraped monthly.