By Roy, founder Last updated 30 September 2026
If you're tired but wired at night, the products worth trying are ones you can buy without a script in Australia: L-theanine at 200mg, glycine at 3g, magnesium glycinate and a caffeine-free herbal tea. Melatonin is a different tool. It shifts your body clock, it needs a pharmacist or a prescription here, and it isn't built for a busy head.
The evidence behind each one is modest, and each has a better chance inside a proper wind-down than on its own. So this page covers both: what each product does, what the trials found, and the free changes that make any of them more likely to help. If you want the three together, Settl, an Australian nightly sleep powder, carries 200mg of L-theanine, 3,000mg of glycine and 730mg of magnesium glycinate in one scoop, with no melatonin.
What does "tired but wired" actually mean?
It means your body is tired and your head hasn't caught up. You're flat on the couch at 8pm, then you get into bed and your brain starts running tomorrow's list.
It isn't a medical term. It's the way people describe being worn out and switched on at the same time. The usual reasons are ordinary ones.
Caffeine lasts longer than you think. The Sleep Health Foundation says caffeine peaks in your blood within 30 to 70 minutes, its effects can last 3 to 7 hours, and it can take up to 24 hours to clear completely (Sleep Health Foundation). A 3pm flat white can still be in the room at 10pm.
Unfinished tasks keep your head busy. A 2018 sleep-lab study describes bedtime worry about unfinished tasks as a significant contributor to difficulty falling asleep (Scullin et al, 2018). The list doesn't stop because the lights went out.
The day has no off-ramp. Work email on the phone, the show that autoplays, bright overhead lights until you walk into the bedroom. Healthdirect recommends a "buffer zone" before bed where you're not solving problems or planning the next day, and no computer or phone during it (Healthdirect, Sleep). We've covered the phone side in more detail in screens before bed.
What product helps when you're tired but wired?
The honest answer is a short list of ingredients, each with a small evidence base, plus one prescription-level option that suits a different problem. Here they are side by side.
| Option | Where you get it in Australia | What the research found | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| L-theanine, 200mg | Supermarkets, chemists, online. No prescription. | One 4-week trial in 30 healthy adults found better scores for time taken to fall asleep than placebo. | Small trial, tablets supplied by the manufacturer. |
| Glycine, 3g | Chemists, online. No prescription. | Small Japanese trials at 3g before bed found better self-rated sleep, and less next-day tiredness after short nights. | Very small samples, company-linked researchers. |
| Magnesium glycinate | Supermarkets, chemists. No prescription. | Three small trials in older adults averaged about 17 minutes faster to fall asleep. A 2025 trial found a small improvement. | Supplements have an Australian upper level of 350mg elemental magnesium a day. |
| Chamomile tea or extract | Supermarkets. | Mixed results in small trials. | Caffeine-free, cheap, a good ritual drink. |
| Valerian | Chemists. | Modest and mixed. | Listed medicines containing it must carry a liver warning, phased in from 2023. |
| Melatonin | Pharmacist only for two narrow uses, otherwise prescription. | Across trials, about 7 minutes faster to fall asleep on average. | A body-clock signal for jet lag and older adults, not a wind-down aid. |
| Combined nightly powder | Online. | Evidence is at the ingredient level only. | Check that every dose is printed on the label. |
Settl sits in that last row. One scoop carries 200mg of L-theanine, 3,000mg of glycine and 730mg of magnesium glycinate (146mg of elemental magnesium), plus 50mg of chamomile extract, 900mg of myo-inositol and about 1,000mg of sodium with potassium. The L-theanine and glycine amounts match the doses used in the trials below. No trial has tested the finished formula, and we'd rather say that than imply otherwise.
Does L-theanine help you switch off at night?
It's the best-matched ingredient for this feeling, with one small trial behind it. L-theanine is an amino acid found in green tea, though a cup carries only about 8 to 30mg.
In a 2019 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial, 30 healthy adults took 200mg of L-theanine before sleep each night for four weeks. Compared with placebo, they scored better on the parts of a standard sleep questionnaire covering how long it took to fall asleep and how disturbed their sleep was (Hidese et al, 2019). The tablets came from the company that makes the ingredient, and two authors worked there. Worth knowing, not a reason to dismiss it.
Don't expect it to knock you out on the first night. The trial measured questionnaire scores after four weeks of nightly use. The dose, the research and why we landed on 200mg are in what L-theanine does.
Is glycine worth taking before bed?
Glycine is the other ingredient with a specific, tested bedtime dose: 3g, taken within the hour before bed.
A 2007 trial gave 3g of glycine before bed to 11 healthy adults who were unhappy with their sleep. They reported better sleep, and lab recordings showed they reached sleep and deep sleep sooner (Yamadera et al, 2007). A follow-up cut volunteers' sleep by a quarter for three nights. The group taking 3g of glycine before bed reported less fatigue the next day than the placebo group (Bannai et al, 2012).
Both studies are small and both involved researchers from the company that produces glycine. The full picture is in glycine before bed.
What about magnesium?
Magnesium has more trials than L-theanine or glycine, but they're small and the effect is modest. A 2021 review pooled three trials in 151 older adults and found they fell asleep about 17 minutes faster than on placebo. Total sleep time didn't improve by a statistically meaningful amount. A 2025 trial of magnesium bisglycinate in 155 adults who slept poorly found a small improvement after four weeks. How to pick one is in choosing a magnesium glycinate.
If you take it, choose glycinate over oxide, check the label for the elemental figure, and stay under the Australian upper level of 350mg a day from supplements. We've compared it with melatonin in melatonin vs magnesium for sleep.
Should you take melatonin if you're tired but wired?
Probably not as a first step. Melatonin tells your body what time it is. It suits a body clock that's out of step, such as jet lag, more than a head that won't stop.
In Australia, melatonin is prescription only by default. A pharmacist can sell it without a script in two cases: modified-release tablets of 2mg or less for adults 55 and over, in packs of 30 or fewer, and immediate-release doses of 5mg or less for jet lag in adults 18 and over, in packs of 10 or fewer (TGA). Across trials, it shortened the time to fall asleep by about seven minutes on average. What's legal to buy, and at what dose, is in melatonin over the counter in Australia.
What about herbal teas?
A chamomile tea after dinner is caffeine-free, costs almost nothing and gives the evening a clear end point. The trials on chamomile are small and the results are mixed, so drink it for the ritual, not for a measured effect. The difference between the tea bag and a concentrated extract is in chamomile extract vs chamomile tea.
Valerian is sold freely in Australia, but listed medicines containing it now have to carry a TGA warning that in rare cases it may harm the liver, a rule phased in from March 2023. Read the label and follow it.
What should you try before you buy anything?
Three free changes, each with a source behind it.
Move your last coffee earlier. Healthdirect suggests no tea, coffee or caffeinated soft drink for at least 3 to 7 hours before bed. The Sleep Health Foundation adds that if you're sensitive, you may need to stop after lunch.
Write a specific to-do list for five minutes at bedtime. In a sleep-lab study of 57 young adults, the people who wrote a to-do list for the next few days fell asleep faster than those who wrote about what they'd already done. The more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep (Scullin et al, 2018). It moves tomorrow out of your head and onto paper.
Give the last hour a shape. Lamps instead of overhead lights, phone on the charger in another room, the same few steps in the same order most nights. If you're lying in bed wide awake, Healthdirect's advice is to get up and do something calm, like reading, away from screens, then go back to bed. How to build a routine that sticks is in how to build a wind-down routine.
Any product has a better chance inside that routine than competing with a late flat white and an open inbox.
When is it worth seeing a GP?
If it's most nights rather than some nights, talk to your GP. Healthdirect says to see your doctor if you regularly wake up unrefreshed, feel restless in bed, have trouble getting to sleep, or find that being tired is affecting your mood. Tell your GP or pharmacist about any supplement you take, especially if you're on other medicines.
If the busy head shows up once the kids are in bed, the wind-down routine for parents has a 20-minute plan.
Common questions
What's the best thing to take when you're tired but wired? Start with the ingredients that have a tested bedtime dose: 200mg of L-theanine or 3g of glycine. Both are sold without a prescription in Australia. Pair either with an earlier caffeine cut-off and a five-minute to-do list.
Is L-theanine or magnesium better for a busy head at night? L-theanine is the closer match. Its trial measured the time it took to fall asleep in healthy adults at 200mg. Magnesium's trials were mostly in older adults, and its role is broader.
Can I buy melatonin over the counter in Australia for this? Only in two narrow cases, both through a pharmacist: adults 55 and over, or jet lag. Otherwise it needs a prescription, and it's built for body-clock problems, not a busy head.
Why am I exhausted all day but wide awake at night? Usually a mix of late caffeine, unfinished tasks and no gap between work and bed. Your body is tired. Your head is still in day mode.
How long before bed should I take L-theanine or glycine? The glycine trials used 3g within the hour before bed. The L-theanine trial gave 200mg before sleep each night. Around 30 minutes before bed, as part of the same routine each night, is a sensible default.
Where Settl sits
Get to sleep faster. Wake less at 3am. Sleep deeper. Wake up refreshed. That's what Settl is built for, and it's aimed squarely at the tired but wired night.
It puts 200mg of L-theanine, 3,000mg of glycine and 730mg of magnesium glycinate into one scoop, with chamomile extract, myo-inositol and an electrolyte layer so eight hours without water doesn't wake you dried out and needing to get up. No melatonin. Zero sugar. Vegan. Every dose is printed on the ingredients page and on the tub. Packed in Sydney, in a TGA-licensed GMP facility.
One scoop, cold water, about 30 minutes before bed.
Start For $69.99 Then $89.99 a month. Cancel, pause or skip anytime.
Or buy a single tub, $99 One-time order. Nothing renews.
Cheers, Roy
Sources: Sleep Health Foundation, "Caffeine and Sleep"; Healthdirect, "Sleep"; TGA, "Regulation of melatonin products in Australia"; TGA, listed medicines containing Valeriana officinalis requiring warning statements; Scullin et al, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2018; Hidese et al, Nutrients, 2019; Yamadera et al, Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 2007; Bannai et al, Frontiers in Neurology, 2012; Mah and Pitre, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 2021; Schuster et al, Nature and Science of Sleep, 2025; Ferracioli-Oda et al, PLoS ONE, 2013; NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values (magnesium upper level). This article explains the general research picture in plain English and isn't medical advice. Talk to your GP or pharmacist about what's right for you.