From stimulation to restoration: Sleep and recovery in cognitive wellness

This shift is reflected in recent global data from Lumina Intelligence, which found that 54% of 6,000 survey respondents cited ‘getting better sleep’ as a key health goal, ranking first above healthy aging and managing stress.

During a recent webinar hosted by NutraIngredients, neuroscientist Dr. Miguel Toribio-Mateas, cognitive researcher Dr. Jack Cotter and Nourished founder Melissa Snover discussed new approaches to foundational sleep and recovery, viewed through the lens of a 24-hour day.

Here, cognitive wellness is increasingly being targeted holistically, moving beyond stimulants like caffeine towards emerging micronutrients and bioactive molecules that may naturally enhance mental energy, focus and resilience without compromising a good night’s sleep.

The science behind good sleep

Good sleep is directly related to circadian rhythm, the body’s 24-hour internal clock. This clock regulates the release of two important hormones: melatonin and cortisol.

Melatonin is triggered by darkness and released at night, promoting relaxation. Cortisol does the opposite, decreasing in the evenings and rapidly increasing in the morning, promoting alertness and energy.

Dr. Miguel Toribio-Mateas, clinical neuroscientist and nutrition researcher at University of West London, explained that modern environmental factors can disrupt this rhythm—a likely reason why one in three people now struggle with their sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“[At night], we should go into different depths of sleep,” he said. “We need to go into restorative sleep, as deep as possible, probably about five times. Most people in this day and age, because we have a lot of stimulation from screens and so on, will struggle to get the full five phases or cycles of deep sleep, and some will only do perhaps three, which may mean that you feel tired by morning.”

He noted, however, that everyone has different measures of this neurobiological cocktail, resulting in different experiences of wakefulness.

One common approach to supporting sleep is supplementation with a synthetic version of the melatonin hormone, but in the UK and some EU member states, melatonin is considered a medicinal product subject to prescription requirements and is therefore not permitted in food supplements.

Alternatively, nutrition may be used to help the body adequately produce the sleep and wakefulness hormones that it needs.

“What we can do with nutrition is make sure that we have the building blocks for these neurohormones […] that are involved—for example, by providing protein within the first three to four hours of the day,” Toribio-Mateas said. “I’m simplifying things because it’s not as easy as you have protein and then you produce dopamine or noradrenaline, but surely if you haven’t got the building block, your body is going to struggle making those neurochemicals.”

Certain bacterial species, notably a strain of Lactobacillus gasseri, may also promote relaxation and induce better sleep, he added, noting that this is an emerging area of research.

As more consumers become interested in “nourishing and replenishing” rather than quick fixes such as caffeine, innovation may be found in ingredients that can help promote both sleep and alertness and focus upon waking.

“If you can invest in an ingredient that’s going to help the body recover while it’s sleeping, help the nervous system to reset while you’re asleep and give you the best bandwidth that you can for the morning, I believe that’s going to be where we’re heading more than the instant fix,” Toribio-Mateas said.

For morning alertness, focus and mental energy, he highlighted omega-3s as an often overlooked ingredient. Omega-3 fatty acids contribute to the structure and function of cell membranes, helping maintain the membrane properties that support cellular signaling, including neurotransmitter receptor activity and nutrient-transport pathways.

Trending ingredients for sleep and recovery

Consumers face a growing selection of sleep supplements, spanning a wide array of ingredients and formulations. In 2025, the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) cataloged nearly 2,700 products specifically labeled for sleep use within its Dietary Supplement Label Database.

Ingredients range from CBD to mushrooms, but one of the largest emerging categories is botanicals.

“We’ve seen an increase in botanicals in the last five years,” Toribio-Mateas said. “They’ve gone from something that was seen as a little bit alternative to being more mainstream. Ten years ago, nobody was talking about ashwagandha […], but if you look at the number of products that have ashwagandha in them now, it’s vast. This is a trend that is proven in terms of the market development.”

Dr. Jack Cotter, new actives science and claims lead at The Water Street Collective, agreed, noting that while ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic traditional ingredients are starting to see a surge in popularity, he believes products that combining established botanicals with newer ingredients may have stronger commercial potential.

“I think people want to see a combination,” he said. “There’s a historical thing where if [a consumer has] read about it, it might give them some confidence, whereas these newer ingredients are a bit more exciting, a bit more interesting. Blending the two, stacking them together and trying to get the benefits from both, I think we’re going to increasingly see in products, be that dietary supplements or functional foods and beverages.”

Cotter also highlighted the strong consumer interest in magnesium but that the science linking magnesium to better sleep is not conclusive. Recent data from UK retailer Holland & Barrett identified the mineral as the most-searched ingredient of 2025, generating 8.5 million product searchers.

In addition, Cotter pointed to the compelling science supporting L-theanine for stress management and its potential to promote acute relaxation, alertness and focus without sedation or drowsiness, alongside the growing body of evidence on ashwagandha and saffron.

Cotter took the opportunity to caution that, despite the growing evidence, supplements are there to support nutrition and normal bodily functions, not treat, prevent or cure medical conditions.

“[Consumers] need to remember that dietary supplements and functional products aren’t miracle cures,” he said. “If you’re going to sit up until 2 a.m. looking at your phone doom scrolling or whatever else, it’s going to impact your ability to fall asleep. Thinking about these things collectively, not just biology, but what we’re eating and how we’re living is going to optimize how some of these substances work.”

Emerging ingredients

For Melissa Snover, founder and CEO of Remedy Health , the parent company of personalized supplement brand Nourished, the evidence supporting natural sleep ingredients was not sufficiently robust to justify developing a sleep supplement until recently.

Her team has been researching natural ingredients for sleep since 2021 after the company’s consumer data revealed significant demand for sleep solutions, but waited until last month to introduce its first sleep supplement.

“We have been working for almost four and a half years and have only just recently launched our sleep product because we could not find a clinically proven, beneficial, natural ingredient that could support not just the length of sleep, but actually the amount of deep sleep and REM sleep people were getting,” Snover said.

Marketed as SleepPro, the product contains the PetptiSleep, a brown rice-derived peptide developed by Nuritas, which is supported by three clinical trials that show improvements in both deep and REM sleep. The formula also includes tart cherry to reduce time to fall asleep and B vitamins for wakefulness.

For Snover, targeting these specific sleep cycles was paramount to not only help consumers fall asleep but deliver the most restorative sleep possible as a critical pillar of healthspan.

“The link between good sleep today and the overall longevity of an individual and the healthspan of an individual cannot be ignored,” she said. “I hope that we see more functional ingredients incorporated to into things like food because the easier we make it for people to incorporate beneficial nutritional elements into their lives, with the least number of steps, complexity or discomfort, the more people will stick to it and actually feel the benefits and have better health overall.”