Hi,

Matt here. Sleep used to be my enemy before races. Staring at the ceiling, running through every scenario. It's not a great way to show up at the start line.

Dream Shot is one of the things that changed that for me. And one update worth sharing: it's now available in an NSF Certified for Sport version. Same formula, now certified for competitive athletes who need that assurance.

David Roche has been running on this stuff. He ran Leadville 14 minutes faster than the year before, and he credits a lot of it to dialing in his sleep. Below, he breaks down exactly what he takes and why.

Over to David:

The Leadville 100 starts at 4 AM. I think one of my big advantages for a 2 AM wake-up is that I absolutely know I can get a restful sleep. And that’s all because of 2 supplements I alternate over time:

  • In 2024, I took Momentous Elite Sleep. It’s like The Rock is spooning you while firmly saying “I WILL HOLD YOU WHILE YOU GO TO SLEEP. YOU’RE WELCOME. YOU’VE BEEN MOANA’D.”
  • In 2025, I took Dream Shot. It’s Harry Styles saying “I love you whether you sleep or not,” as you drift away on a peaceful cloud.
  • Both are NSF Certified for Sport! Dwayne and Harry know what’s up.

I ran 14 minutes faster in 2025, so I seem to be more of a Harry guy (you could probably tell).

Here’s a stone-cold scientific fact: sleep is complicated. If you follow physiology influencers on social media, they’ll lecture you constantly about the importance of sleep. To me, that’s kind of yelling at me: “Poop! Right now! POOP!” If I need to go, yes sir it’s not a problem. Most of the time, though, that type of information is not helpful for me.

In the old days when I read this advice, I started sweating. I sucked at getting to sleep. Yes, I did every sleep hygiene recommendation. When I was in college, my bed was only for reading and sex, and I wasn’t having any sex. I rarely slept at all before races, and I sometimes struggled to sleep before hard training.

That informs my big sleep advice now: ignore the noise, for the most part. The more you get concerned about it, the more it becomes another source of stress. Do what you can with caffeine timing, screens, and eating timing to give yourself a chance to relax. But if you can’t sleep, relaxing in bed still counts. I bet if we could “blind” study participants to their sleep patterns, we’d see very few differences between athletes who sleep like stress-free rocks and those who just relax while their brains replay all of the questionable jokes they wrote in an email for The Feed.

For me, these 2 supplement options help my sleep routine. Most of the time, I take Dream Shot. It has no melatonin and the ingredients really help me stay asleep. In coaching, I’ve seen that when it works for an athlete, it REALLY works (and it’s what a lot of pros take). It’s not a 100% hit rate, likely depending on genetic and environmental factors that are individual specific. In the same way that there are genotypes associated with variable caffeine response, I bet there are variable genetic responses to sleep.

Dream Shot is gentle, but sometimes (like with traveling east across time zones), I just want to have my consciousness obliterated. Elite Sleep has 3mg melatonin, and I don’t know what it is about my brain, my genetics, or the formulation, but it does the trick for me. Some studies find promising results of positive impacts on athletic performance from melatonin, but I always worry about long-term use. Anecdotally, it helps me get to sleep more than it helps me stay asleep.

Even with my own glowing reviews, I have heard testimonials that go both directions. A top pro athlete recently wrote to me: “I tried Dream Shot last night and it I slept like a ROCK. It was pretty cool hahah.” Meanwhile, we gave a friend a package of our Dream Shot stash and she said it didn’t make a difference for her. Harry, how could you?!

Even with that information, my love language remains giving out Dream Shot packages when I hear anyone mention sleep concerns. 

It’s complicated to write an email like this, wanting to give every disclaimer while also being real about products I believe in. I’ll leave it here: I used to get nervous about sleep. Now, it’s one of my biggest advantages.

Dream Shot and Elite Sleep give me a sleep tailwind. 

- David