The confessions of a recovering sleep-supplement addict:
A little background about me. I'm a university student that tries to juggle working out, a ridiculously hard course load and going out 1 or 2 nights a week. Needless to say this puts alot of stress on me, and I would often find myself jumping into bed with so much on my mind that I wouldn't fall asleep for an hour +. Enter the supplements.
I first started with your standard Zinc Magnesium Aspartate. For the first three nights I actually remembered my dreams which absoluted shocked me, because I remember my dreams less than once a month! It might have to do with me dreaming about falling off the CN Tower as a kid then actually rolling out of bed and falling off, but that's a whole 'nother story! Anyways after 3 nights, I stopped remembering my dreams but I still felt I was getting some decent sleep. The bottle lasted me 2 months, and I felt it helped give me some deeper sleep and improved quality, so I was hooked.
After I ran out, I decided to try NP's Zinc Magnesium Tryptophan caps. There was about a 1 month break inbetween getting these and finishing my ZMA bottle during which time I had some very poor sleep (Quite likely from being dependent on taking any sort of pill before sleep, possibly a placebo effect). Once I used the ZMT caps, I once again had some vivid dreams for 3 days then I stopped remember my dreams and kept on having some good sleep.
Out with the old, and in with the new. I ordered some GABA and some PowerFULL.. I had experienced GABA in White Flood, and it had set my heart racing. But then I had read about it's ability to raise GH and help put people to sleep, and I thought I would give it a try. Anyways these 2 ingredients gave me a 1-2 punch that knocked me out like a rock. I initially started at about 0.5g of GABA and worked my way up to over 3g as my body built up a tolerance to it unfortunately.
Because of the tolerance, I decided to take some time off. As I started running out, I decided to order some Phenibut after some reading, but unfortunately when my order came I realize I had ordered PEA instead! :frustrate . Anyways I took this as a positive sign , and instead tried some Deep Breathing/Meditation and some adaptogenic herbs (Thank you to strategicmove for the advice). This I found to be very successful, and if I was ever really in a bind I would pop a melatonin and it :hammer: me right out!
Looking at Abyss' ingredient profile, it is almost like a mini-summary of most of the sleep aids that I've tried, all put together in a perfect combination! Abyss uses all these different compounds to help deliver better sleep through various means. The Zinc and Magnesium have been shown to help with cellular growth and repair, energy balance, and restful sleep. Training as hard as I do, I feel my body depletes itself of these minerals, and Abyss provides them in forms with a high bio-availability. Tryptophan is also another excellent addition, being the precursor to serotonin and melatonin (which has proved itself to be VERY effective in putting me to sleep!). Then Abyss takes it one step further by adding in Phenibut which acts like GABA but is able to cross the Blood-Brain Barrier. The addition of L-Theanine is a welcome addition for a stressed out student like myself because it has been shown to help reduce stress and increase relaxation.
Overall, I think that Abyss has successfully integrated many of my favourite sleep aids into one complete formula that should be capable of delivering quality sleep and promoting recovery, which is one of the most crucial aspects of any person's life.
