What's in Sleepyher, and why we chose it.

When we introduced Sleepyher, we promised to come back with the full picture: what is in it, why each thing is there.

What's in it

Sleepyher is a warm evening drink. A rich cocoa base with cherry, cinnamon and ginger, made to be poured at the end of the day and enjoyed slowly. Before anything else, it had to be something you would genuinely look forward to, because an evening ritual you do not enjoy is one you will not keep.

A drink you like is a drink you will actually make, and consistency is what makes any habit worth having, and we seriously love this one. 

The nutritional side

Sleepyher has two sides, and it is worth separating them, because plenty of products in this space blur the two. The first is nutritional, and it is the reason we made it.

Magnesium is the main event. A serve provides 200mg, which is 63% of the daily requirement, and that is a genuinely substantial contribution rather than a token sprinkle. It matters because many women fall short. On national figures, around one in three Australian women do not get enough magnesium to meet their estimated requirement, largely because the richest sources, leafy greens, legumes, nuts and seeds, are the first foods to slip on a busy week.

Alongside it are three more at meaningful levels: zinc at 70% of the daily requirement, vitamin D at 50%, and selenium at 37%. Bookend your day with Greenher in the morning and Sleepyher at night, and you are covering a solid part of your daily intake across the board.

There is also calcium, at 80mg per serve. That is a modest amount, around 10% of what you need in a day. It is there because calcium and magnesium work together in bone, and because the vitamin D alongside them matters: your body cannot absorb calcium properly without it, and magnesium is required to activate vitamin D in the first place. They are a genuine team, so it made sense to bring them together rather than hope they lined up by chance.

My nutritionist tip: make it with milk

If bone health is on your mind, and for women through perimenopause and beyond it deserves to be, here is my recommendation. Make your Sleepyher with milk rather than water.

A cup of dairy milk or a calcium fortified plant milk adds a substantial amount of calcium, considerably more than the drink contributes on its own, and it turns a modest calcium top-up into a useful one. Check the label on plant milks, as not all are fortified, and the calcium content varies a great deal between brands. It also makes for a richer, more comforting drink, which is no small thing at the end of the day.

This is the sort of small, repeatable choice that adds up over years, which is rather the whole point of foundational nutrition.

A fair question: do calcium and magnesium compete?

If you have read our earlier pieces on nutrient pairings, you will know some minerals compete for absorption. Calcium and iron are the classic example.

It is a fair question why we have put calcium and magnesium in the same drink, and one I am pre-empting, so thought I'd pop this here now.

The competition between these two is far weaker than the internet suggests, and it matters mainly when calcium is present in large, supplement-sized doses alongside comparatively little magnesium. Sleepyher is the opposite arrangement. There is 200mg of magnesium to 80mg of calcium, so the ratio runs firmly in magnesium's favour, and the calcium is a modest food-level amount rather than a high dose. On these numbers the concern does not apply.

These two are partners far more than rivals in any case. They work together in bone, in muscle and in nerve function, which is precisely why they so often appear side by side.

The rest of it

The second job Sleepyher does is simply to be a lovely drink at the end of the day. This is where the cocoa, the cherry, the cinnamon and ginger, and the botanicals live: chamomile, lavender, passionflower, lemon balm. Glycine, which is a naturally sweet amino acid, lends the drink its gentle sweetness alongside a little monk fruit.

The measurable nutrition comes from the minerals. The rest is the pleasure of the thing, and a calming ritual before you go to bed. 

What Sleepyher is for, and what it is not

Sleepyher is a food, not a medicine. It is designed to be a nourishing, enjoyable part of an evening routine, and to top up minerals that a lot of women are not getting enough of. 

If you are struggling with your sleep in a way that is affecting your life, that is worth a conversation with your GP. Persistent sleep problems can have causes worth investigating. A nice drink at the end of the day is a good thing. It is not a substitute for proper care.

Why the ritual is worth having 

Setting the ingredients aside for a moment, there is something to be said for the routine itself. A consistent wind-down, the same small sequence of things each evening, is one of the most widely recommended parts of good sleep habits. Not because any single element is magic, but because the repetition signals that the day is closing.

Making a warm drink, sitting down with it, putting the day away. That is worth having whether or not there is anything clever in the cup. We simply thought that if you were going to make something warm each evening, it may as well be feeding you something useful while you enjoyed it.

The takeaway: Sleepyher is a warm cocoa evening drink that does two things. It delivers a substantial magnesium top-up at 63% of your daily requirement, along with meaningful zinc, vitamin D and selenium and a smaller amount of calcium, which you can lift considerably by making it with milk. And it is an enjoyable end to the day, built from cocoa, cherry, spices and traditional evening botanicals. It is a good drink worth looking forward to, with real nutrition in it.

Product information

Ingredients

Alkalised Cocoa Powder, Glycine, Magnesium Citrate, Aquamin MgAg (Marine Magnesium), Aquamin F (Marine Mineral Source), Kiwi Fruit Powder, Tart Cherry Extract Powder, L-Theanine, Freeze-Dried Muntries Powder, Chamomile Extract Powder, Phyto Sleep Blend (Passionflower Extract, Lavender Extract) (1.667%), Organic Cinnamon Powder*, Natural Flavours (Natural Cherry Delight Flavour, Natural Milk Chocolate Flavour) (1.833%), Zinc Gluconate, Lemon Balm Extract Powder, Marshmallow Root Extract Powder, Monk Fruit Extract, Ginger Extract Powder, Salt, Selenium-Enriched Yeast Powder, Vitamin D3.

*Certified Organic

Allergen information

No declarable allergens.

Nutrition information

Serving size: 6g.

Vitamins and minerals

RDI values stated under FSANZ Schedule 1 S1-2 and S1-3. Variations in natural ingredients may occur and results may vary between batches.

How to make it

Stir 6g into 200ml of warm milk or water. For a richer drink, and a useful calcium boost, we recommend dairy or fortified plant milk.

While you are here, if nutrition panels are something you have never quite known how to read, we wrote a guide to reading them properly, including what the law does and does not require companies to tell you.

The science behind this post:

• National Health and Medical Research Council. Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. Magnesium, calcium, zinc, selenium and vitamin D requirements by sex and life stage. nrv.gov.au
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (2015). Australian Health Survey: Usual Nutrient Intakes, 2011-12. Around 34 per cent of Australian women have inadequate magnesium intake (below the Estimated Average Requirement). abs.gov.au
• Uwitonze AM, Razzaque MS (2018). Role of Magnesium in Vitamin D Activation and Function. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 118(3), 181-189. Magnesium as a required cofactor for vitamin D metabolism.
• Institute of Medicine (2011). Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D. The interdependent relationship between vitamin D status and calcium absorption.