The Holistic Ingredient An MD Uses For Deeper Sleep & A Gentler Wakeup

Low GABA levels—which can be caused by genetics, medication, poor diet, and just everyday stressors—have been associated with insomnia and difficulty falling asleep. While eating a healthy diet, exercising, and doing calming activities like meditation can help bring levels back into balance, there’s also a natural supplement that’s been proved to support healthy GABA levels and help people fall asleep fast.*

Meet pharmaGABA, a version of the GABA neurotransmitter that’s manufactured using a fermentation process that isn’t too dissimilar from the one used to make cheese, wine, and other fermented foods.

Acclaimed integrative medicine doctor Robert Rountree, M.D., has been using this natural form of GABA to help patients sleep for decades, to great success.*

“It’s an amazing substance,” Rountree told mbg’s co-CEO Jason Wachob during a recent virtual sleep summit.* “It’s been shown to bind to the same GABA aminobutyric acid receptors in the brain that help us calm down and relax.”*

Rountree explained that some of his medical colleagues were at first doubtful that manufactured GABA could have the same effects as the real deal, but recent research has shown otherwise.* In one 2018 double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on 40 patients who reported insomnia symptoms, a four-week GABA regimen was shown to decrease their sleep latency (the time it takes someone to fall asleep) and increase sleep efficacy (the percentage of time in bed someone actually spends sleeping).*

While this study was conducted over the course of one month, pharmaGABA seems to get to work immediately.*

“I wouldn’t say that it knocks you out,” Rountree clarifies.* “It just makes you feel calmer and more relaxed, and there are studies showing that it actually affects brainwaves.”*

In one of those clinical trials, EEG measurements found that GABA, compared to water and L-theanine (another amino acid that’s thought to promote sleep), significantly increased the brain’s alpha waves (relaxing) and decreased its beta waves (stimulating) within an hour of administration.* In short, Rountree says? “It’s the real deal.”