PeptiSleep Sleep Tea: Product Ideas for Founders

A sleep tea with PeptiSleep, a brown rice peptide network, at the center, and 2 ways to build one.

So many brands are looking at performance. They're looking at energy. They're looking at recovery. But how do we support the sleep people take every single night?

That's the question behind the first concept we pitched to Jenelle Benson and Marc Burkhalter of Nuritas on Beyond the Blend: a PeptiSleep sleep tea. Jenelle runs business development for supplements in North America. Marc heads product formulation.

If you can make people's sleep more effective, that's a multiplier on every other area of their life. If you're not sleeping, your time in the gym and your diet don't matter as much.

If you only want the tea pitch, here's the sleep tea concept clip.

In this article, I'll cover what PeptiSleep is, what the early research actually says, why tea is a smart format for it, and 2 sleep tea concepts you could build.

TL;DR

If you only read one section, read this.

• PeptiSleep is a network of peptides from brown rice, developed by Nuritas.
• The published human study is a small 26-person pilot. Promising, but early.
• The concept stack: PeptiSleep as the hero, with magnesium, chamomile, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and L-theanine in support.
• Nuritas has already tested PeptiSleep in tea bags and powdered teas for heat stability.
• Tea fits a routine people already have at night, which makes it easier to keep taking.

What Is PeptiSleep, and Does It Work?

Peptides are small proteins, usually 2 to 50 amino acids long. Their job in the body is signaling. They carry instructions from cell to cell.

Nuritas uses an ai platform to screen plant peptides for a specific target. For sleep, they found peptides in brown rice that hit that target. PeptiSleep is the result: a hydrolysate, meaning a predigested protein, carrying the active peptides Nuritas identified.

The way Jenelle explained it, those peptides dock on 2 receptors tied to the body's stress response and inhibit the release of cortisol. You still need cortisol to wake up. The goal is to flatten the spikes in the middle of the night, the 3 a.m. wake-up where your mind starts racing.

That's a different angle than melatonin. Nuritas didn't want to add something. They wanted to lower the stress hormone.

The published human study is a small randomized, placebo-controlled pilot in Sleep Medicine: X. It was single-blinded and followed 26 adults with sleep impairment for 56 days. Every part of the sleep questionnaire leaned toward PeptiSleep. Only getting to sleep and sleep quality cleared statistical significance, and just barely. Oura ring data suggested differences in heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep stages, and the authors call that exploratory.

Translation: early data. Good enough for a story, not for a promise on the label.

Nuritas also runs consumer research on how people feel the next morning, and says waking up without grogginess is where people notice PeptiSleep. If you want to put that on your label or your landing page, get the data from Nuritas first and have it reviewed.

Why a PeptiSleep Sleep Tea, and Why Now?

Sleep is a big problem in this country. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute puts it at 50 to 70 million Americans with sleep or wakefulness disorders.

I'm really fascinated with melatonin. Use took off: a JAMA research letter found reported use among US adults went from 0.4% in 1999-2000 to 2.1% in 2017-2018. My read is that a lot of people are now questioning whether they want to take it every single night. We've seen AG1 launch AGZ, a melatonin-free nighttime drink, in August 2025.

Marc thinks the tea space has plateaued and needs something new to drive growth again. He called tea "a hidden giant of a format."

Jenelle drinks tea every night as part of winding down. A lot of people already have capsule fatigue from a morning stack. At night, you want something you look forward to.

What PeptiSleep Sleep Tea Products Can You Actually Build?

Here's the stack we pitched: PeptiSleep, supported by magnesium, chamomile, GABA, and L-theanine. Really, it's riding the Huberman sleep stack suggestions, but combining that with PeptiSleep.

Honey Chamomile PeptiSleep Sleep Tea in Stick Packs

Honey flavor, chamomile, magnesium, GABA, L-theanine, and PeptiSleep, as an instant tea. Tear a stick, stir it into hot water.

Nuritas has built something close. One of the first recipes Marc developed was a honey and chamomile combination with magnesium and PeptiSleep, which they showed at SupplySide. Ingredients that do double duty help here. Chamomile is a flavor people already know and a sleep ingredient at the same time. PeptiSleep itself has a mild, fairly neutral taste, so it isn't hard to flavor.

Nuritas has run heat stability work in both powdered teas and tea bags. We make powders and stick packs. Our stick pack lines run 23mm to 41mm widths, so the stick can fit the dose. If you'd rather sell it in tea bags, that's a different production setup.

Immunity Plus Sleep Night Tea

This one's a twist. Same powdered stick format as above.

This tea pairs PeptiSleep with magnesium, GABA, vitamin C, and elderberry. The pitch is simple: support for normal immune function and restful sleep in one cup.

My Take

Tea is a format that fits a routine people are already using. It features PeptiSleep as the hero ingredient, and there are a lot of other ingredients in there that support that story. That's what makes it approachable.

There's a trade-off in the stack, though. The SupplySide combination was built around honey, chamomile, magnesium, and PeptiSleep. If the full stack doesn't fit your dose or your price, read why you shouldn't kitchen sink your supplement formula before you decide what stays.

Of the 2 concepts, Immunity Plus Sleep is the one I've been pitching to brands for years. I'm still trying to find someone who can take it to market.

Your Next Move

There's sleep teas out there. There's not many with PeptiSleep as the hero. That's a unique opportunity for someone.

When the time is right, book a discovery call. We'll walk through your formula, format, and costs, send samples, and give you a no-pressure roadmap from a team that's been there.

Ben Steuart, CEO & Owner, Steuart Nutrition

Ben Steuart is the co-founder and CEO of Steuart Nutrition, a contract manufacturing and supplement innovation partner for powder, liquid, and stick‑pack supplements. He launched the company in 2019 alongside his wife, Sarah, building on his lifelong roots in the food production industry, where he grew up working in his father's food-manufacturing business in Mabel, Minnesota.

Throughout his career, Ben has developed deep expertise in supplement manufacturing and business operations. At Steuart, he leads with a commitment to lean operations, fostering long-term partnerships, and delivering flexible, transparent service, prioritizing the client's vision as much as his own. His leadership guided the business's rapid expansion from a single facility to multiple locations, enabling agile responses to market needs, from producing hand sanitizer during the COVID‑19 pandemic to scaling CBD and nutrition supplement lines.

Ben's approach is rooted in strong values. His faith as a born‑again Christian deeply informs the company's mission of "glorifying God and establishing a transformational workplace". This culture of integrity and continuous improvement fosters a trusting, mission-driven environment, distinguishing Steuart as both a capable and conscientious industry leader.