Primal One Sleep Aid
Positives
- Good serving of theanine
- Good serving of lemon balm
Negatives
- Rutaecarpine untested in humans
- Uses synthetic, basic melatonin
- Not a complete formula
- Could use more theanine
Summary: Primal One Sleep Aid can definitely help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep for longer, and to get more high quality, genuinely restful sleep. The combination of theanine, magnesium and melatonin produce a calm, sleepy mind and a relaxed body when you need them to. But Primal One Sleep Aid is far from perfect. One ingredient – Rutaecarpine – is untested in humans. It could be better, but as it is Primal One Sleep Aid is a good quality supplement.
Primal One Sleep Aid Review: What Does It Do?
Primal One is a new supplement brand. We first noticed them just a month or so ago when they launched their nootropic, Ambition. Despite only being on the market for a short while, Primal One are receiving a lot of attention online. There are already a good few Primal One Sleep Aid reviews online; the vast majority are positive. What does this sleep aid do then? How does it claim to help you exactly?
According to the bottle, the key benefits of Primal One Sleep Aid are that it:
- Promotes mood and relaxation
- Reduces stress
- Is non-habit forming
- Promotes restful, better quality sleep
We can’t really ask for much more from a sleep aid!
The question is, does Primal One Sleep Aid really work? Is it safe? Will it cause side effects? How does it stand up against the best sleep supplements on the market right now? Find out answers to these questions by reading our detailed Primal One Sleep Aid review below!
Primal One Sleep Aid Ingredients
Here is the Primal One Sleep Aid formula as it appears on the box:
Here is a brief overview of what each ingredient does and how it might improve your sleep. In each case we’ll tell you what the scientific literature has to say about these substances and their ability to influence sleep. Got questions? Post them in the comments at the end.
L-Theanine – 200mg
Theanine is an amino acid with some really interesting physiological effects. It is used in a bunch of different supplements for different reasons. One the most common reasons theanine is used is for its ability to counteract the worst side effects of caffeine. Theanine reduces things like jitters and hypertension, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of caffeine without the most severe adverse effects.
Theanine also promotes relaxation without acting as a sedative. Basically, it relaxes the body and reduces tension, allowing you to fall asleep much faster than normal. The 200mg we get from Primal One Sleep Aid is more than enough to see real benefits.
Lemon Balm Extract – 150mg
Lemon balm has been used as a sleep aid for a very long time. In parts of the world it has been drunk as a sleep inducing tea for hundreds of years. Recent studies have found that there might actually be something to this. One study, for example, found that lemon balm extract supplementation significantly improved sleep quality in people suffering with anxiety-related sleeping issues (source). The 150mg of good quality extract we get from Primal One Sleep Aid is plenty. At least it’s more than we get from most sleep aids.
Rutaecarpine – 100mg
Rutaecarpine is a really interesting ingredient. We haven’t seen this used in a sleep aid before. But that isn’t to say it isn’t worth adding. Rutaecarpine is an extract from a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine. Like all herbs used in traditional medicines, the plant is said to have wide ranging properties. Rutaecarpine might have some specific uses for people trying to get a better night’s sleep.
Recent studies on rodents found that rutaecarpine supplementation is able to reduce caffeine levels in the blood (source). No studies have been done to confirm is this effect happens in humans too. But it looks like rutaecarpine might be able to flush the caffeine out of your blood – very useful if you’re a coffee addict!
Melatonin – 3mg
Melatonin is the hormone which governs your sleep/wake cycle. It is rare for a hormone to be effective when supplemented orally. But melatonin is; it quickly and efficiently crosses the blood brain barrier, causing a spike in melatonin concentrations in the brain. This significantly hastens the onset of sleep – about 30 minutes after taking 3mg of melatonin, you’ll feel sleepy and ready for bed. Melatonin controls the depth of your sleep too. Supplementing with melatonin is a great way to promote deep, truly restful, high quality sleep.
The 3mg we get from Primal One Sleep Aid is more than enough to see a difference in sleep quality and latency. We prefer a natural source of melatonin, but synthetic, straight melatonin is the norm for sleep supplements today.
Magnesium – 150mg
Magnesium is a phenomenal natural sleep enhancer. It is one of the most under-appreciated sleep aids in our opinion – effective, reliable, works for most people, safe, it has it all. Magnesium has several different mechanisms of action. It reduces blood pressure, prevents muscle spasms, promotes a calm, clear mind, and more.
Few people get enough magnesium from their diet; they don’t eat enough leafy greens or nuts. Supplementation is therefore necessary for most people, especially if you are concerned about sleep quality. Primal One Sleep Aid gives us 150mg of highly bioavailable magnesium citrate. This is more than you need to see improvements in sleep quality and duration.
Our Thoughts On The Primal One Sleep Aid Formula
Primal One Sleep Aid does not look like a bad sleep enhancer at all.
It provides good servings of some proven, effective sleep enhancers.
More importantly, it combines substances that have different mechanisms of action – Primal One Sleep Aid enhances sleep in different ways at the same time. This kind of multi-pronged approach is always going to yield better results than using a single substance.
Each ingredient in Primal One has robust scientific backing – there are peer-reviewed studies showing that they have the potential to help with sleep quality, latency and duration.
Rutaecarpine is the only substance without human clinical data backing it up. But rodent studies on this substance look promising, and it definitely makes Primal One Sleep Aid stand out from the average sleep enhancer on the market today.
However, we don’t think Primal One Sleep Aid is a perfect sleep supplement by any means.
It doesn’t contain any Tryptophan or 5-HTP, so you aren’t getting the benefit of higher serotonin levels. This is an important facet of sleep enhancement – one we have come to expect from top quality sleep stacks.
It uses basic, synthetic melatonin. We much prefer a natural source of melatonin as the body finds it easier to process and utilize than the synthetic stuff.
But these are rather minor issues. Overall, Primal One Sleep Aid looks like a solid sleep supplement.
If you’re looking for something to help you fall asleep faster at night, then you definitely want to utilize melatonin and theanine. Primal One Sleep Aid provides both.
Of course, for theanine you could drink decaffeinated tea. The melatonin quality could be better here too. One ingredient hasn’t really been studied in humans. But these are not fatal flaws. There are better sleep aids on the market for sure, but Primal One Sleep Aid is solid.
Side Effects – Is Primal One Sleep Aid Safe?
On the whole, Primal One Sleep Aid looks perfectly safe for regular use. We aren’t aware of any serious side effect risks associated with any of the ingredients used in this supplement. There don’t seem to be any long-term health risks mentioned in the scientific literature either.
However, there is one ingredient that you need to be mindful of – Rutaecarpine.
At the time of writing, there haven’t been many human studies done on this substance.
It isn’t used in many other supplements currently on the market.
We therefore can’t say for certainty whether or not this stuff is safe for repeated, long-term use.
The available studies don’t indicate that there is a substantial risk of side effects or adverse effects on health with Rutaecarpine. But they can’t rule them out either since there isn’t a good body of clinical evidence to look at. You really need to do your own research carefully here before proceeding. If you have any doubts whatsoever, talk to a doctor.
So while Primal One Sleep Aid looks safe to us, there is still some uncertainty over this relatively untested ingredient.
In Conclusion – Is Primal One Sleep Aid Right For You?
Primal One Sleep Aid is a pretty good sleep aid overall.
It is certainly unique. It offers an alternative to the usual stack we’ve seen so many times before – Chamomile, Valerian, Hops, Theanine and GABA get boring after a while!
Primal One Sleep Aid provides healthy servings of effective, proven sleep aids. Together, these ingredient can drastically reduce the time it takes you to fall asleep, as well as significantly improving the quality of your sleep.
While Rutaecarpine is unproven in humans – and therefore liable to cause unforeseen side effects – it is an interesting and potentially very beneficial ingredient.
Is Primal One Sleep Aid an effective sleep supplement? Yes it is. It will benefit most of the people who use it, and we don’t think the side effect risks posed by Rutaecarpine are excessive.
Is it the best sleep aid on the market today? No it is not. It doesn’t pack as much of a punch as some of the other products out there at the moment, and it doesn’t offer anywhere near the kind of quality or value for money you get from our top rated sleep aids.
See Our #1 Rated Sleep Aid
Performance Lab Sleep
This is easily the best natural sleep aid on sale today. It is extremely simple yet extremely powerful. It covers every aspect of sleep enhancement:
- Reduced sleep latency
- Promotes deeper, more restful sleep
- Supports cell maintenance while you sleep
READ OUR FULL REVIEW
Brian Johnson is a former academic researcher, psychologist, and tireless proponent of bio-hacking. Brian has dedicated all of his time since leaving academia and private practice to promoting the benefits to be obtained from the application of biotechnology and bio-hacking supplements. He has years of experience with nootropics, as well as prebiotics, probiotics, and other natural nutritional supplements. He has published scholarly research on natural nootropics; you can find his papers on his Google Scholar page.
I’ve used for many years 0.25mg melatonin and another 0.25mg when I wake up at 4-5am. This works well. One mg at bedtime only works the first night; subsequent nights need more as if the melatonin receptor was being overloaded, and eventually no amount of melatonin works and I have to go off for several days to get the effect again. I heard that there’s a MIT study which says 0.25-0.33mg is the right dose. My experience seems to confirm this. I don’t understand formulations which have multiple milligrams. Comment from Brian?