8hours is a natural, non-habit-forming sleep and recovery supplement, crafted with a bespoke formulation backed by scientific research. Their message is simple: to perform well, you need to Sleep to Move. With that, 8hours is shining a light on one of the most overlooked foundations of performance — quality rest. As someone who’s frequently sleep-deprived, I reached out to 8hours who kindly sent me a pack of the supplement to review. Could the missing piece of my performance puzzle be found in 8hours? Let’s find out.

Who are 8hours?

Teetering on the edge of physical and mental burnout, Oliver and Mathias — the founders of 8hours — realised they’d been neglecting the true foundation of performance: sleep and recovery. Frustrated by the lack of quality options on the market, they spent two years researching, testing, and refining what would become the 8hours sleep and recovery supplement — confident they’d nailed the brief.

With that final piece of the puzzle in place, they went on to run marathons, cycle across Europe, and continue to pursue sport as everyday athletes — all while building, launching, and running a successful business. They’re passionate about proactive health, committed to radical transparency, and determined to grow a community of like-minded dreamers.

The Importance of Rest for Runners

Not interested in running? Skip to the next section.

We all know rest matters—but let’s be honest, most of us don’t give it the attention it deserves. It’s not just about feeling a bit less tired; proper rest is what lets your body rebuild, adapt, and actually benefit from all the miles you’re logging. Physically, it’s when the real training happens. Mentally, it gives you space to breathe—especially during those long, grinding blocks where every session starts to blur into the next.

Thing is, most runners aren’t sleeping enough to truly back up their training. We’ll obsess over pace and weekly mileage, but skimp on the one thing that ties it all together: recovery.

If you want proof, just look at the East African examples. Kenyan and Ethiopian runners have been setting the standard in this sport for decades. Books like Running with the Kenyans and Out of Thin Air dig into the training methods behind their dominance—but here’s the part that often gets glossed over: it’s not just about big mileage (though 200km+ weeks are common). It’s also about how seriously they take rest. Recovery isn’t a side note—it’s a key part of the program. When they’re not running, they’re recovering.

As Alex Hutchinson writes in Endure, “In Kaptagat, Kenya, where marathon world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge trains, the daily rhythm is simple: run, eat, sleep, repeat. The athletes spend much of their time between sessions lying quietly in their bunks, conserving every ounce of energy.”

Of course, most of us aren’t professional athletes. We have jobs to show up for, families to care for, friends to see—lives to live. Still, the East African emphasis on rest might just be the linchpin of their success—the subtle yet powerful factor that separates the best from the rest.

I’m certainly no elite runner. I wouldn’t even call myself a particularly good runner. But, like many of you, I’m chasing improvement. I want to see how far I can push myself, how “good” I can really get. Whether you’re aiming for a sub-15 minute 5K or working toward breaking 40 minutes, that desire is the same: to challenge ourselves, to grow, to prove that we’re capable of hard things. And to do that—really do that—we need to take recovery seriously. We need rest, not as an afterthought, but as a key part of the process.

Why 8hours Sleep to Move

As someone who’s long struggled with poor sleep—habits and all—I set out to explore whether a natural remedy could improve this overlooked part of my performance. Over the years, I’ve cycled through various pharmaceutical options. At times, that meant turning to controlled, prescription-only substances like Zopiclone. I even tried antidepressants, the likes of Mirtazapine and Trazodone, which are prescribed off-label for insomnia. Eventually, I settled on over-the-counter solutions—things like Nytol (a high-strength drowsy antihistamine.)

While all of these interventions work, they’re a short-term solution and don’t address the root cause of the problem. Worse still, when you stop taking them, sleep problems tends to deteriorate further.

In my quest for a more sustainable alternative, I came across 8hours. I don’t recall whether it was a targeted Instagram ad or a late-night Google search, but their slogan — “Sleep Better – Recover Better – Perform Better”— immediately caught my attention. As a poorly-sleeping “Everyday Athlete” (shout out to runtrimag.com), the message resonated deeply.

What’s in 8hours: Sleep to Move?

The 8hours Daily Sleep & Recovery Supplement is a science-backed, natural, non-habit-forming formula designed to enhance sleep quality and support overall recovery. It comprises five key ingredients, each selected for their specific benefits:

Magnesium Bisglycinate (800mg): An essential mineral that contributes to normal muscle function, supports protein synthesis, and plays a vital role in energy metabolism. The bisglycinate form is highly absorbable and crosses the blood-brain barrier, making it particularly effective for supporting relaxation. It’s also kinder on digestion than other forms of magnesium.

L-Theanine (200mg): A naturally occurring amino acid found in green tea leaves, known for promoting a calm and relaxed state of mind, helping you unwind without causing drowsiness.

Apigenin (50mg): A natural flavonoid widely recognised for its calming effects and ability to support mental relaxation. It also contributes to the body’s natural defences against oxidative stress.

Myo-Inositol (250mg): A naturally occurring compound involved in maintaining balance in the body, particularly during the night. It’s been associated with supporting normal biological functions and metabolic processes.

Montmorency Tart Cherry (400mg): A natural source of antioxidants and phytochemicals, widely studied for its role in supporting recovery and managing oxidative stress. It’s also a source of natural melatonin, associated with the regulation of the sleep-wake cycle.

What’s in the Box?

In my first order, along with the neatly-packaged supplements (60 tablets — one month’s supply), 8hours provide an informative pamphlet to help the user build better habits around bedtime.

My Thoughts After One Month

Going into the review of 8hours’ Sleep to Move supplement, I knew there were three key questions I wanted to answer. First: am I sleeping better since using the supplement? Second: am I noticing any benefits to recovery, either directly or indirectly? And third: can I confidently say the benefits are down to the supplement? So, let’s get into it.

Has My Sleep Improved?

Overall, my sleep has noticeably improved. Sleep latency — the time it takes to fall asleep — has always been my main issue. Night is when my brain kicks into overdrive. Ideas, worries, regrets, and silly (sometimes hilarious) thoughts flood my mind. It’s as if it waits all day to throw a party, only to turn on the strobe lights the second my head hits the pillow. But lately, things have been different. I’ve found it much easier to switch off.

Is that down to the ingredients in 8hours? It’s certainly possible. Montmorency Tart Cherry is a natural source of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. One pilot study investigating its potential use as a treatment for insomnia found that it helped increase sleep time by 84 minutes. Sleep efficiency, which is the percentage of time spent asleep while in bed, also increased.

What’s more, 8hours’ supplement contains Apigenin. It’s commonly found in chamomile, which explains its popularity as a bedtime tea. In animal studies, Apigenin has been shown to induce a sedative effect. Though the dose in 8hours’ supplement is relatively low, its use in tandem with Montmorency Tart Cherry and L-Theanine likely goes some way to explaining why it’s been easier of late to fall asleep.

Sleep latency hasn’t been the only improvement, either. Sleep duration also considerably improved — likely due to the reduction in time taken to fall asleep. In four weeks of use, three met (and even exceeded) my average weekly sleep need (set, of course, to 8 hours per night.) This might not sound all that significant, but in the 12 months to date, only 16 of 52 weeks met the average requirement of 8 hours per night. While I would need to test 8hours for a full year to take into account extraneous factors, it’s interesting to see that without the supplement, just 27% of weeks met the recommended average 8 hours compared to 75% while using the supplement.

Have I Noticed Recovery Benefits?

Magnesium is a supplement commonly used by runners and other athletes for its wide range of potential benefits — including reduced DOMS, improved muscle fibre repair, cramp prevention, reduced inflammation, and, of course, better sleep. Naturally, it was already part of my supplement arsenal, or “stack”, as the cool kids like to call it. So, when I started taking 8hours, I stopped taking my usual dose to see if anything changed.

And… it didn’t. I didn’t notice any improvement or drop-off in those areas, which is actually a useful finding in itself. It suggests that 8hours alone is likely covering my magnesium needs — meaning one less supplement in my daily “stack.”

An additional aspect of recovery I was particularly curious about, one admittedly garnered from customer feedback, was the mention of “positive trends in HRV” while using 8hours. HRV is a highly individual metric, so it’s not one for broad comparisons. But for context, mine has always been stubbornly low. No amount of training (or staying away from life’s more indulgent habits) has ever shifted it. At least not up, anyway.

Unfortunately, that trend continued during my use of 8hours. So no miracles there. Nonetheless, if HRV is something you monitor closely, it could still be worth trying — your experience might mirror that of other customers.

Supplement, Placebo, or Something Else?

While using the 8hours sleep and recovery supplement, I experienced a reduction in sleep latency alongside an increase in sleep duration. That said, without a well-designed randomised controlled trial involving both experimental and control groups, it’s impossible to determine how much of that benefit came from the active ingredients, the placebo effect, other variables — or a combination of all three.

I’ve no doubt it would be easy to find an affiliate reviewer raving about the miraculous effects of some sleep supplement, hoping to convince you to order your first month’s supply. But I’m not interested in selling snake oil. And with any respect for the scientific method, I can’t in good conscience attribute all the positive effects I experienced solely to 8hours.

That’s not to say 8hours didn’t help. In fact, it might be the reason for the sleep improvements I experienced. What I’m saying is, without conducting such an experiment, I can’t objectively state why something happened.

And here’s the thing: 8hours themselves don’t make any bold claims of being a magic pill. In fact, they actively oppose this approach, one all-too-often taken by others in this industry. They write, “In an industry rife with deceit, ambiguous ingredients, and questionable promises, navigating something as crucial as your health becomes challenging.”

What’s more, they recognise that sleep is a complex, multifaceted issue. They recognise that 8hours is a supplement, not a substitute to a healthy lifestyle, stressing that “without intentional daily habits, considering 8hours (or any supplement for that matter) is futile.”

It’s this latter point I really want to focus on. Earlier, I mentioned the informative pamphlet included with 8hours — a guide aimed at helping you build better bedtime habits. In my view, it’s the combination of those simple, intentional habits alongside 8hours’ formulation that has made a noticeable difference in my ability to sleep and recover. Small changes, perhaps — but they’ve added up to a big impact.

Cutting the Blue Light
Top of the list? Screens off one hour before bed. This used to be my worst habit. I’d try to squeeze every last drop out of the evening — TV, console, endless scrolling. That time felt sacred. But it turns out I wasn’t gaining anything from it except a restless brain and poor sleep.

Now, we’ve made it a rule in our house: alarms set, phones on Do Not Disturb, and everything off at least an hour before we plan to be asleep. Blue light suppresses melatonin production, delaying the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle — the circadian rhythm. Essentially, you’re telling your body, “Hey, don’t produce that sleepy hormone — it’s still light out, and I need to stay awake to hunt, gather, and stay alert in case of predators!” Except, of course, we don’t need to do any of that.

It’s a cruel loop. We scroll for quick hits of dopamine, which makes it harder to stop scrolling. But by not stopping, we disrupt our sleep — and poor sleep makes us crave more dopamine just to get through the day.

The world can wait. Really, it can. The memes will still be there in the morning, if you must.

Reading Before Bed
Instead, I’ve gone back to something I used to love: reading. It’s been years since I read consistently—too many academic articles will do that to you—but now, I’m making my way through classics, crime fiction, running books, whatever’s at hand. It’s become a genuinely enjoyable part of the day. It also makes the no-screens rule easier—because, let’s face it, most of what’s on TV is forgettable at best.

By the time the hour’s up, I’m genuinely ready to sleep. It’s not foolproof—nothing is—but it’s miles better than before. Book down, lights out, job done.

How Much is 8hours Sleep to Move?

8hours comes either as a one-time purchase, priced at £45 for a month’s supply, or as a pause or cancel at any time subscription. There are three subscription lengths — one, three, or six months — costing £37.80, £99.90, and £172.80 due in full at checkout (the equivalent of £37.80, £33.30, and £28.80 per month, respectively).

We’ve partnered with 8hours to provide our readers with a 10% discount code. Just follow any of the links in this review, or use code GRITTY at checkout.

Is 8hours Worth the Cost?

When I first saw the £45 price tag for a one-time purchase of 8hours, I thought it was a bit (okay, very) steep. And while it’s true you “can’t put a price on your health,” that doesn’t mean everyone can afford to pay the asking price.

That said, £45 is the most you’ll ever pay — and even that can be brought down. If you’re not into subscriptions, our discount code (GRITTY) knocks the one-time price down to £40.50. If you are open to subscribing, even a rolling monthly plan drops it to £37.80, with further discounts for longer commitments.

Still, being the Yorkshireman I am, I couldn’t help but wonder: is 8hours actually good value? Or is it just riding the Huberman-fuelled wave of lifestyle optimisation? So, I did what I do — I dug a little deeper.

Turns out, from an ingredient standpoint alone, 8hours is great value — and that’s before you even factor in the discounts. More impressively, they’re radically transparent about where your money goes. Right there on the product page, they break down the actual production costs per pouch — something I’ve never seen from a supplement company. So, fair play, 8hours.

Production Costs (per pouch):
Production: €7.88
Packaging: €0.42
Extras (leaflet): €0.21
Lab Tests: €0.38
Warehousing: €0.93
Shipping (avg.): €4.90
Charity (2%): €1.00
VAT (9–21%): €10.50
Total: €26.22

Final Verdict: Would I Recommend 8hours?

If you’re looking for a natural, non-habit-forming option to support sleep and recovery, 8hours offers a thoughtfully crafted formula packed with ingredients backed by scientific research.

Over the course of a month using 8hours, I saw a reduction in sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) and an increase in sleep duration, hitting my 8-hour target in three out of four weeks. That said, it’s impossible to say with certainty how much of that was down to the supplement alone. Even 8hours are clear about this — it’s not a magic pill. The supplement is meant to complement daily habits, not replace them.

In my case, habits like switching off blue light-emitting devices at least an hour before bed and picking up a book played a big role. And they’ve continued to help even when I ran out of the supplement.

Some might argue that this proves it’s the habits — not 8hours — doing the work. But I’m not convinced. I’ve known the advice for years, tried the usual tips, and never got lasting results. It was only when I paired those habits with 8hours that things started to shift.

I think the formulation plays a key role. Montmorency Tart Cherry provides a natural source of melatonin, while compounds like Apigenin and L-Theanine help quiet the mind and ease the body into a more relaxed state. It’s not like a sleeping pill — it won’t knock you out — but it’s just enough to nudge you into a state where those pre-bed habits can do their job.

In that way, the supplement and the habit feed off each other. Take reading, for example: when you pair it with the supplement, your body begins to associate it with a relaxed, sleep-ready state. So even when you stop taking 8hours, the habit still holds power — and that, to me, is one of the best signs the supplement actually works.

I can’t prove that’s what’s happening. But based on my experience, I’d recommend 8hours to anyone — athlete or otherwise — who struggles with sleep and can afford to give it a go. Sure, the price might be harder to swallow than the capsules themselves, but if used right, it might only need to be a one-time investment. Considering the link between sleep quality and long-term health, that’s a small price to pay.

And if you do find it works and want to stick with it, the six-month membership brings the monthly cost down to £28.80 — a much more manageable number for consistently better sleep.

That said, I know not everyone can justify that kind of monthly spend. We’re in a cost of living crisis, and while it pains me to call something that helps you sleep a “luxury item,” unfortunately, that’s the reality. These are the first things to get cut when money’s tight.

If that’s the case for you, don’t lose hope. You can take inspiration from 8hours’ formula and try some of the individual ingredients. For example:

• Montmorency Tart Cherry (£7.17)
• L-Theanine from green tea extract (£13.49)
• Apigenin (£15.99)

When I spoke to Mathias, one of the co-founders, he made something clear: he doesn’t want people joining the affiliate scheme unless they’re genuinely passionate about the product. Sure, he could flood influencers with free product in exchange for glowing reviews. But that’s not what this brand is about. They’re confident in what they’ve built — and they want others to see that too.

So here’s my honest take, the Gritty Runners way: I experienced clear improvements while supplementing with 8hours, but I can’t definitively say it was all down to the supplement. What I can say is that the habits I built alongside it have continued to help me fall asleep — and that, to me, speaks volumes about the role 8hours played in getting those habits to stick.

My advice? If you can afford it, give it a go. You might just find it’s the missing piece in your sleep and recovery puzzle.

Where to Next?

8hours recently released a new product — Rise. It’s a drink designed to address the next eight hours. Or, in other words, what the body needs upon waking. Just like Sleep, it contains a synergistic blend of ingredients designed to support athletic performance and recovery. Read the full review of Rise.

If you want to check out more of our reviews, you can find them here.