The evening drink for better days.

Most evening formulas are a long list of familiar botanicals — chamomile, passionflower, hops — largely because people recognise them. We built around one almost nobody in the UK does. Jujube seed, or suan zao ren, has been used in Chinese medicine for around two thousand years.

Magnesium always comes bound to something else, and that pairing decides how much of it you actually absorb. Oxide is the cheapest and, by most estimates, the worst absorbed by a distance — much of it simply stays in the gut, which is where its reputation for discomfort comes from. Bisglycinate absorbs considerably better and sits gently in the evening.

The one everyone expects, and it's in most products in this category. The evidence behind it is reasonable for stress and thinner for anything else. It can also affect thyroid hormone levels — and thyroid conditions are more common in women than men, and more common again with age. That isn't a risk worth taking in a formula built for this group, so it isn't in here.

In the UK melatonin is a prescription medicine rather than a supplement, so it was never an option for a nightly drink. It also does a narrower job than most people assume: it shifts the timing of your body clock, which is why it's prescribed for jet lag and shift work.