Ingredients are certainly InstSleep’s biggest problem: it just doesn’t have enough of them. Most of the best sleep aids contain at least five ingredients, if not more (our favourite sleep aid, RestAgain, contains 11 active ingredients). There are many substances that have evidence supporting their usefulness in dealing with bad sleep or trouble falling asleep, why hasn’t InstaSleep included more of them?
In addition, the three ingredients in InstaSleep amount to a pretty measly 48mg. Not to keep banging on about RestAgain, but it’s worth noting that RestAgain contains over 1.5 grams per serving, that’s about 30 times more ingredients than in InstaSleep. True, RestAgain is quite a bit more expensive, but it’s not 30 times more expensive! And it’s much more likely to work.
Not only does InstaSleep lack ingredients and not include enough of them, it hides the amounts behind a proprietary blend. Considering this blend amounts to just 48mg, the only ingredient InstaSleep could conceivably have enough of is melatonin.
If we generously assume that InstaSleep has gotten at least one thing right and included a decent dose of melatonin, this leaves just 38mg of ingredients left—when considering the other ingredients are 5-HTP and GABA, that’s basically nothing.
Let’s look at the InstaSleep ingredients in detail and we’ll explain just how under-dosed this supplement is:
5-HTP - Taking 5-HTP as a supplement helps stimulate serotonin production. Studies show that taking 5-HTP helps people to sleep more deeply and can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep.
The only downside to using 5-HTP, according to the research, is that it can take a few weeks of taking it as a supplement before it has any effect. And you need to be taking the right amount of course, which in this case is around 100mg with up to 300mg per day being effective although more likely to lead to side effects. Clearly, 5-HTP, being just part of a roughly 40mg part of a sleep aid supplement, as it is in InstaSleep, is horrendously underdosed!
GABA - Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is one of many neurotransmitter chemicals that support communication between brain cells. Evidence shows that when produced in the brain GABA reduces overall brain activity. Research suggests that consuming GABA as a supplement can also reduce brain activity and make it easier to fall asleep, and it also boosts natural melatonin production.
A 300mg dose has been shown to significantly reduce the time it takes to fall asleep. Side effects from taking GABA are uncommon and a 300mg dose is not associated with any specific problems, making GABA a decent ingredient to include in any sleep aid. Unfortunately, InstaSleep clearly does not include enough GABA to be effective. Again, only a portion of around 40mg of GABA can possibly be in InstaSleep, which is an awfully long way from the recommended 300mg.
Melatonin - Melatonin is one of the most commonly found ingredients in sleep aids. Produced naturally by the body, releasing melatonin is the body’s normal method of putting itself to sleep. It has been shown to be far less liable to create a habit among users than antihistamine usage and it does work. However, melatonin can cause some side effects when you first start using it. For this reason, experts suggest taking low doses to begin with. For adults, this means taking between 1-5mg and gradually building up to around 10mg.
Since InstaSleep hides the amount of melatonin it contains inside its proprietary blend, this means it is impossible to know exactly what dose you are taking. This makes InstaSleep potentially dangerous and could cause side effects in people susceptible to melatonin— this is just one more reason to avoid InstaSleep.