01

The glass of wine to “wind down.”

Alcohol helps people fall asleep faster. In lab studies, sleep in the second half of the night was more disrupted. You fall asleep sooner and wake up worse.

Source: Ebrahim et al., Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 2013

02

The 3pm coffee that “wears off by bedtime.”

In a controlled study, caffeine taken 6 hours before bed still reduced total sleep by more than an hour, and people didn't notice.

Source: Drake et al., Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2013

03

“Catching up” on the weekend.

In a controlled study, weekend recovery sleep didn't undo the effects of short weeknights. A consistent routine every night beat trying to fix a bad week on Saturday.

Source: Depner et al., Current Biology, 2019

04

Doubling the melatonin gummy.

Researchers tested 25 melatonin gummy products. Only 3 were within 10% of the label; the rest ranged from 74% to 347% of what they claimed. Taking two means you may not know what you're taking at all.

Source: Cohen et al., JAMA, 2023

05

Scrolling “until I'm tired.”

People who read on a light-emitting screen before bed took longer to fall asleep and had delayed melatonin release compared with reading a printed book.

Source: Chang et al., PNAS, 2015

SO WE BUILT A DIFFERENT RITUAL

downshift: every dose, printed.

A cherry sleep stick you stir into water at the end of the day. No added melatonin, no alcohol, no caffeine, no blends. Every ingredient listed in milligrams on the pack. Batch 001 arrives early 2027.