Stress and sleep: trial finds no clear advantage to combining two supplement blends

Four groups to test the blends separately and together

Participants were randomly assigned to four groups: both active blends, the morning blend alone, the evening blend alone, or two placebos. The trial was double-blind. The mean age was 34.8 years.

The morning blend combined ashwagandha and Rhodiola rosea. The evening blend contained magnesium L-threonate, L-theanine and apigenin. These combinations prevent any potential effect from being attributed to a specific ingredient.

The study lasted four weeks: one baseline week, two weeks of supplementation and one week after stopping. Researchers collected questionnaires on stress, mood and sleep, along with nighttime measurements from a wearable device.

Favorable signs, but not across all outcomes

In the group receiving only the morning blend, the abstract reports reductions in perceived stress assessed weekly, participant-reported sleep-related difficulties and wake time after sleep onset measured by the device.

For the PSQI sleep quality score, the explicitly quantified comparison is between the morning blend alone and the combined morning and evening blends, not placebo. The reported mean difference is 0.66 points in favor of the morning blend. The abstract does not establish whether this difference represents a noticeable improvement in daily life.

The authors conclude that the morning blend produced improvements compared with placebo, while describing limited effects on other outcomes. This demonstrates neither the general effectiveness of each ingredient nor any added value from combining them.

A short trial that cannot guide the choice of a regimen

Each group included between 25 and 27 people. Two weeks of exposure is not enough to assess whether the effects persist, how they develop over the long term or their relevance to people with insomnia or substantial stress.

Only the Europe PMC abstract was consulted. It contains an inconsistency: it states that there was no difference in daily stress while reporting a p-value below 0.05. This result therefore remains unresolved without clarification.

The abstract does not detail adverse effects, funding or conflicts of interest. It is not sufficient to assess the safety of these combinations or recommend their use.

What we can take away

This trial suggests some benefits from the morning blend in active adults, with no clear advantage to adding the evening blend. It does not justify turning this combination into a routine for stress or sleep problems.