If you’ve ever used a prescription, you are not alone. I’ve used plenty of prescription sleep aids, and they are hard to come by. Well, you have to have a serious problem to get your doctor to prescribe them in the first place. But the simple fact is that most of them don’t work. I personally used lunesta, which worked for about 3 months before it abruptly stopped working, and it had a bad taste. I’m not saying I chewed it. But if you did not get it strait down your throat without even touching the tongue, you would taste it.

I’ve also heard the stories about Ambien, and I’ve tried some other sleep aids, some of which are only meant for extreme cases, and they’re supposed to knock you out for about 24 hours in too high of doses or more. I could hardly get 8 hours of sleep out of them when I doubled the amount usually used by anybody else. So sleep is not something I normally come by. I don’t pity myself too much when I consider the family in Italy who dies from lack of sleep after the age of 40. But it’s not fun.

The side effects are the reason why many insomniacs are turning to natural sleep aids. They have different chemicals. For example, melatonin is actually a naturally occurring chemical in the brain, and valerian root has actually been found to be quite effective in many cases. However, frankly, many of these still don’t work. The problem is that I’ve taken the melatonin supplements, and they just aren’t strong enough.

One substance I’ve come upon that is actually pretty effective is Phenibut. I’ve used relatively high amounts. But I can definitely see how it could be effective with normal use. And I haven’t had many of the side effects and the drag I had with prescriptions. However, I’ll be honest, no one natural ingredient alone has been exactly what I was looking for. This is why I stopped buying in the natural food stores.

This is not to say that natural sleep aids don’t work. It’s just a bit harder than one might hope to find the ones that do. Luckily I have. And I’ve realized that, the best supplements have the best combinations of ingredients. There are literally hundreds of natural sleep inducing substances, and by no means do you have to or should you use all of them. However, if you find the right combination, it can work miracles.

I’ve found that a good combination does include phenibut obviously. But others include valerian root, melatonin, St John’s Wort, and chamomile. Some are meant to relax, others are meant to reduce anxiety, and there are some purely meant for sleep aid benefits. No matter which ones you choose however, it is important to get the right combination for your body. What works for one person does not always work for another, and unfortunately, this is something we so often forget, which largely leads to failure in sleep aids.