Goal

Recovery and sleep

Compounds20
With human trials4

Twenty matches, three unrelated mechanisms, and a ranking you should not read top-down.

Two related things are bundled here: the quality and architecture of your sleep, and how quickly you feel restored between hard training sessions. They are joined because most growth hormone secretion is tied to slow-wave sleep, which is why so many growth hormone axis compounds appear on a page about sleeping better.

MK-677 stands alone at 5/5. It is orally active, lasts around twenty-four hours, and has the most human trial evidence of anything here for increasing slow-wave sleep — including a two-year study in older adults that also flagged raised fasting glucose and reduced insulin sensitivity, alongside the appetite increase and water retention it is known for. At 4 sit the pre-bed pulse strategies (CJC-1295 without DAC, ipamorelin, sermorelin) plus DSIP and Selank, which work on sedation and anxiolysis instead. DSIP is the cautionary entry: its name promises delta-wave sleep, but the controlled work is a handful of small studies from roughly 1977 to the early 1990s with modest and inconsistent effects, and some of the more repeatable findings were in pain and withdrawal rather than insomnia.

Do not read this list top-down. Twenty compounds carry a weight and none of them beats fixing light exposure, alcohol, caffeine timing and a consistent wake time — that is not a disclaimer, it is the ranking. If you do pick something, decide first which of the three things you want: sedation and sleep onset (DSIP, Selank), sleep architecture and growth hormone (the secretagogues), or systemic recovery (SS-31, TB-500). Growth hormone releasing compounds are dosed on an empty stomach because a recent meal blunts the pulse, which in practice means finishing dinner well before you inject.

How to read this

Match — how squarely it aims here

The weight the dataset gives this compound for this goal, 1 to 5. It describes intent and mechanism, not benefit, and not direction: a 5 means the compound acts hard on the system in question.

5/5Match strength 5 of 5primary use

Evidence — whether anyone has shown it

Read from the compound’s evidence note and handling grade, for the compound as a whole rather than for this goal alone. A 5/5 match on animal data is a hypothesis, not a result.

  • Human trialsRandomized or controlled human trials exist, or the compound holds a regulatory approval somewhere. Trials existing is not the same as trials succeeding — some of these were negative.
  • Some human dataPublished human work exists but is small, early-phase, acute, or from a single group that nobody has replicated.
  • Animal data onlyThe case rests on rodent and cell work. Doses shown are extrapolated, not established in people.
  • Anecdotal onlyNo published trial record of any kind. Every number comes from vendor packaging and community practice.

20 compounds, strongest match first

Ranked for recovery and sleep

Named stacks

Protocols built around this goal

GH Pulse (Ipamorelin + CJC-1295 no-DAC)Primary goal12 weeksBeginnerThe standard growth hormone secretagogue pairing: a GHRH analogue (CJC-1295 without DAC, also sold as Mod GRF 1-29) plus a ghrelin receptor agonist (ipamorelin), injected together so the two mechanisms produce a larger pulse than either alone. Both are short-acting, which is the point - it mimics a natural pulse instead of flattening it.Sleep Nasal (DSIP + Epitalon)Primary goal2 weeksIntermediateDSIP and epitalon run together on a short evening course, sold as a sleep stack and increasingly as a nasal spray. Both names promise more than the data delivers: DSIP is named after how it was discovered, not after a demonstrated hypnotic effect, and epitalon's sleep and longevity claims come almost entirely from one unreplicated Russian group. This entry exists to describe the stack accurately, not to recommend it.Semax + SelankAlso targets4 weeksBeginnerTwo intranasal Russian-developed peptides run together as a short course: semax for focus, drive and BDNF signaling, selank as the anxiolytic counterweight that takes the edge off semax without sedation. Both are non-injectable, which is most of their appeal.Retatrutide + GH PulseAlso targets16 weeksAdvancedWeekly retatrutide for the fat loss, plus the standard nightly GHRH + GHRP pulse (CJC-1295 without DAC and ipamorelin) bolted on. The stated reason is preserving lean mass through an aggressive incretin cut. Read the evidence note before you buy that reason - the lean-mass problem is real and measured, but this specific fix is not.Focus Nasal (Semax + Selank)Also targets4 weeksBeginnerSemax and selank in a single pre-mixed nasal spray, run as a short course: semax for focus and drive, selank as the anxiolytic counterweight that takes the edge off it. This is the same two compounds as the Semax + Selank entry in this library - the difference is the delivery format, not the pharmacology. It is here because the nasal route is the point: these two are formulated intranasally on purpose, and it is the one stack in this library that involves no needles at all.Advanced Mitochondrial (MOTS-c + SS-31)Also targets8 weeksAdvancedThe two most talked-about mitochondrial peptides run together: MOTS-c, a mitochondrially encoded peptide that activates AMPK, and SS-31 (elamipretide), a tetrapeptide that binds cardiolipin on the inner mitochondrial membrane. Two different points of attack on the same organelle, which is the whole rationale. Graded advanced because both are thin on human data and because nothing you can measure will tell you whether it worked.

Not sure this is your goal

Most people arrive wanting two or three of these at once, and the honest answer is usually to pick one and run it properly. The quiz weighs your goals against your experience, the routes you will tolerate and your contraindications, then shows its reasoning rather than just a name.

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Other goals

Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.