Hi all, I was going to wait a week to see how things progress, but thought I would get the ball rolling after three nights of positive experiences. I include a little bit about me at the bottom and will elaborate more in another post when I have time, but I have a mountain of work on at the moment.
So, having previously accepted the whole “don’t bother with GABA supplements because they don’t cross the blood-brain barrier” (if you tell people this and warn them off of it without having tried it, please stop now), I found some posts on Reddit extolling its virtues and read some positive reviews on Amazon and thought “what do I have to lose”, other than another $20 to add to the hundreds or thousands I have spent on supplements over the last 3 years.
I ordered Puritan’s Pride 750mg GABA as it was the most legitimate looking one I could find available in the Latin American country where I am currently. I checked reviews for that brand online, saw people saying they had come back to it after trying others, and I ordered it.
On the first night I took it, I got this wave of warm fuzziness and relaxation through my body and though I only got 5 hours of sleep, they were restful hours, unlike my sleep for the past three years of PFS. I felt tired in the morning, but not the sort of total full body exhaustion I have grown used to when making up, more the sort of “I haven’t quite slept enough” feeling I would get when I slept for that amount of time pre-PFS. I should note, I have had sleeping issues since I was a teenager, so that is not an unusual feeling for me, just one I haven’t had for years. I also woke up with a rock hard boner, the sort that just won’t go away, like old times. It remained for a good 30 minutes after waking. This has not happened to me since PFS struck. I should note that night I also drank a beer before taking it and used Passiflora, a locally available anti-anxiety natural remedy, and took melatonin. However, I have been using both of those things for weeks with no such effects.
On the second night, I found it slightly harder to get to sleep, but I woke up again feeling refreshed and again with a rock hard boner. Having previously found that I wake up either around 6 or 7 if I have got to sleep by 2, or after about 5 hours after I manage to get to sleep, with no possibility of getting back to sleep, I woke up around 7.45, I think after a good 6.5 hours of sleep, again feeling refreshed in a way I have not felt for years. Again I used Passiflora.
On the third night, last night, I found it about as difficult as usual to get to sleep (though nothing out of the ordinary for my pre-PFS sleeping), but again I woke up feeling refreshed and with a boner. Not initially as hard as the days before, until I touched it and it got that hard. This morning, I actually managed to drift back off to sleep for another hour. This has not been a possibility for me for my entire time with PFS. I also took melatonin, Passiflora and also drank a “bed time” tea at about 1.15 am because I was still having trouble sleeping.
So far the experience has been very very positive, and while it seems that my body must have got used to the GABA since the initial dose really did help me get to sleep, it appears that it is having an enormous effect on my sleep quality. Basically, I don’t think it is something that I can rely on to get me to sleep, but it appears to be having a massively positive effect on my sleep quality and the morning wood is very welcome.
I will continue to report back in the coming days. I hope so much that it continues to have benefits for my sleep quality and delivering morning wood, because this has not happened for years.
A final note, I have read many reviews from people saying it is effective for them and others saying it does nothing, so please don’t read this and think it definitely will help or be upset with me if you try it and it doesn’t. But having not bothered with it after finding so many other supps have been a waste of money, and so many people on here saying it is useless, I am now filled with regret for not giving it a try sooner. So perhaps it works for some people and not for others.
If you are going to respond to this with something about how it doesn’t cross the BBB and therefore I must be talking crap (i.e. you are going to call me a liar – I know how some people are on this forum) please save your fingers and don’t risk putting off someone who might also benefit from this. Though I would say, if you are reading this and it sounds interesting to you, give it a few more days. I will report back to let you know how I go.
I have had PFS for 3 years, and experienced a major crash at the beginning of 2018. I have done water fasting, weights, strict diets, supplements, all sorts, and I have gone through periods of improvement and periods of worsening. I have previously contributed to this forum under other names, but I have lost my passwords to my accounts because I always sign up with an email specifically for using this forum and, having moved around a lot and lived in four countries during this time, and having often taken long breaks from the forum (I am back again after about 5 months away) because it does make me feel more ill when I am constantly reading it, and also having a memory like a sieve for the past two years, I have repeatedly forget the email address or passwords. I have now stored this email address and used a password I will never forget for this account. I will write about this in more detail later, when I have time.