What I understand of GABA is this… You have actual GABA and you have GABA receptors. When GABA binds to GABA receptors you get the sleepy effect. There are 3 types of receptors (A, B and C). The most common is A…which is agonized by alcohol, benzos and Z drugs. They all effect that receptor set a little differently but ultimately they are GABA A agonists. They dont create GABA… they just bind to the receptor and act as GABA creating a similiar effect. GABA B receptors are most commonly effected by Phenibut. Phenibut also mildly agonizes GABA A when used in large doses from what I understand.
So to answer your question… None of it is “safe” . Long term alcoholics end up with insomnia because when they stop drinking and remove the alcohol which was getting used in place of actual GABA to put them to sleep, their body no longer creates enough GABA to help them sleep so they have a deficiency. However in our case… we already are low on GABA to start with. So I think the strategy should be to take as little of a GABA agonist as possible. Just enough to help quality of life and stay sane but maybe not every day…who knows. ALso… while I’m not any kind of doctor but have done lots of research, I think cycling things helps keep tolerances down. For instance if you were to Use an anti histimine a couple days a week, a GABA A agonist a couple days a week, a GABA B agonist a couple days a week and possibly a canabnoid agonist like weed a couple days a week… you may have a better shot at getting sleep and not building a tolerence or dependency on any one type of GABA agonist. I met a guy on here @basementdweller who does something like this.
If your sleep isnt horrible… you could try NOW Valerian powder, KAVA by Kalm with Kava or SleepCaps by Liftmode (Oleamide which binds to canabanoid receptor)
Lastly… I did some reading on GABApentin… this drug acts as an agonist but also helps the body synthesize GABA. I think it may be the only drug that does this. It may be worth looking into. I took some GABApentin one night and I definitely got decent sleep. I didnt continue with it because it made me feel like my breathing was depressed possibly due to the fact that I was taking it with Remeron. I have sinced lowered my dose of Remeron so I might revisit GABApentin at some point.
Once again… I’m not a doctor but have researched lots of this. I encourage anyone to correct me on anything that I stated which might be wrong or not totally accurate.