Do Sleep Aids Really Work?

Ever find yourself tossing and turning, unable to go to sleep? In addition to the traditional methods (warm milk, essential oils, calming music), sleep-aid supplements are gaining popularity. Products such as Dream Water (a new liquid sleep aid) are designed to help you get a better night’s rest, but do they actually work, and are they good for you? Beautylish's Tara put Dream Water to the test to find out whether it really performs, and how it compares to more traditional methods.

It was with trepidation that I opened my bottle of Dream Water, envisioning a night of horrific dreams and the inability to wake up. Such was my worry that I only took three-quarters of the bottle—the directions say to drink the whole thing—as I am petite and figured an overdose would not be a good thing. Dream Water is an all-natural sleep aid in a liquid form, designed to help you have a restful night’s sleep and get you to the land of nod when you’re feeling restless or can’t turn off your brain. I'd been having trouble getting to sleep—I'm usually out like a light—so it was a great time to try it out. I tentatively sipped my Dream Water, which tasted like a bitter vitamin C tablet, and about 15 minutes later I was nodding off to sleep. I did have some strange dreams and experience one of those moments when you wake up but are still slightly asleep and don’t know where you are. The only problem was when my alarm went off in the a.m. It felt like one of those mornings when you're so exhausted that you just can't get up, and it was extremely hard to pull myself from slumber. I had the feeling I could sleep all day.

Compared to traditional sleep aids, such as warm milk, lavender oil, or a warm bath, Dream Water does work faster and perhaps more effectively. It contains a little melatonin—a hormone in your brain that regulates your sleeping patterns and a supplement that is found in  stronger sleep aids like Nyquil—but that’s the only added chemical. All in all, it’s a great product to use when you really can’t drift off, but I wouldn’t turn to it every night.