What's in Som Sleep?
The ingredients in Som are non-habit forming and are NSF-Certified for Sport, guaranteeing that what's on the label is in the bottle "and that the product does not contain unsafe levels of contaminants, prohibited substances, or masking agents," according to the NSF International website (though Som notes on its own website that the drink hasn't been evaluated by the FDA). The ingredients do three things for your sleep, Rob explained:
- 40 mg of magnesium and 2 mg of B6 provide nutritional support to get your body's "sleep engine running as smoothly as possible" since these are needed in the metabolic process that regulates sleep.
- Amino acid L-Theanine and GABA, another naturally occurring amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain, help relax and calm your mind down to shift your brain over to alpha-wave activity. This is the state when you're drowsy and can naturally shift from wake to sleep. (Beta-wave brain activity, in comparison, is primarily what occurs during your day-to-day when you're alert and awake.)
- 3 mg of melatonin, the natural sleep-regulating hormone in humans, helps maintain your normal sleep cycle.
Som differs from other sleep products because it targets a number of steps in the sleep process that people tend to really struggle with, Rob said. "Som Sleep is not a knockout drug. It's not a baseball bat to your head," he explained, adding that over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceuticals are often sedatives that leave you feeling groggy when you wake up. Som, he said, really "helps people progress down the natural process of sleep."
The Som team purposely left out 5-HTP, an amino acid used by the body to produce serotonin and an ingredient common in similar sleep-aiding products, because it could interact with serotonin-regulating drugs like antidepressants that people might be taking. For more information, you can check out Som Sleep's web page devoted to the science behind Som.