Are Sleep Patches Legit Or A Fad?

It’s 2 am. You’re staring at the ceiling, counting sheep, listening to sleep playlists, trying out some bedtime breathwork, tossing and turning, wondering why your brain won’t shut up and if one of those little sleep patches would remedy all your problems.

They look like a Band-Aid, but instead of offering wound protection, they claim to be a hack to send you to the land of the nod. But do they really work, or are sleep patches just another fad? Let’s peel back the layers on this one.

What even are sleep patches?

Sleep patches are small, single-use adhesive stickers you place on your skin (usually your arm or foot) before bed. They’re infused with ingredients like melatonin, magnesium, CBD, lavender, passionflower or other herbs that are supposed to help you relax and drift off. The idea is that instead of swallowing a pill or having a cup of sleepy tea, the patch slowly releases these ingredients through your skin while you snooze. When you wake up, simply rise, shine and remove the patch!

As the Sleep Foundation explains, most melatonin supplements are designed to deliver the melatonin quickly to help you fall asleep faster, but you may still run into problems with staying asleep. Melatonin patches on the other hand, are formulated with an slower-release system designed to help you stay asleep for longer.

Despite the existing research on oral melatonin, a significant amount of melatonin is lost naturally through the metabolisation process. Nasal sprays and patches that go under your tongue appear to have the highest bioavailability, and transdermal melatonin patches that go on your skin likely fall somewhere in the middle.

So do sleep patches work?

Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced by your body, but it’s also one of the most popular sleep aids, adding to your body’s natural supply and putting you into a state of relaxation that promotes sleep (rather than knocking you out like a sleeping pill). Other patch ingredients often have the same calming effects on the body, such as lavender, passionflower and valerian root.

As the Cleveland Clinic explains, melatonin supplements can help you get to sleep and stay asleep, but you shouldn’t think of them as some magical cure if you’re having ongoing sleep problems. You should also check with your healthcare professional if you’re considering taking them - especially if you have preexisting health conditions or are taking other medications.

When it comes to melatonin in patch form specifically (the new kid on the block), although they’re considered safe for short-term use, there simply isn’t enough research yet to know how effective they are.

According to the Sleep Foundation, way more research has been done on the effectiveness of oral supplements so far, and it can improve sleep for people with sleep disorders, help you fall asleep faster, or alleviate jetlag. With patches, we simply don’t know enough yet and even though many people are claiming anecdotally that sleep patches are an absolute godsend, we need more research to draw any solid conclusions.

How to decide

If you give sleep patches a shot and they work for you - amazing! Until more evidence is available, you probably won’t know if it’s the melatonin, another ingredient, or the placebo effect. If you try them and notice side effects such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, temporary depressive feelings or stomach cramps, they might not agree with your body.

If you’re wanting to spend your money on a more tried and tested product, we recommend talking to your doctor about the best options available, or more importantly, what is messing with your sleep in the first place and what other changes you could make to support your slumber.

Get a better night’s rest

Sleep supplements can work wonders for short term, but if you’re having ongoing challenges, going back to basics and looking at your overall lifestyle, health and habits (with the help of your healthcare professional) is always best to get to the root of it.