Avinol PM Review: Does This Sleep Aid Do What It Claims?

What is Avinol PM?

Avinol PM is one of the many sleep aids that you can find in the market, with a line up of natural ingredients to help you sleep better.

Most of these ingredients are also what you would expect to find in a natural sleep aid which is a promising start.

You will see that you come across some proven relaxants for sleeping such as L-theanine and magnesium. These are then paired up with compounds like melatonin to kick up the sleeping process.

Then there are others like lemon balm, hops flower, and chamomile flower powder which, in all fairness, are good ingredients to promote sleep when used in adequate doses on their own.

However, the problem with Avinol PM starts when we find that these otherwise potentially effective ingredients have been stuffed together in a proprietary blend.

Now, we are extremely wary when it comes to proprietary blends. The reason is simple – this is just a way to hide how much of each ingredient has been used (which can never be a good thing from anyone claiming to produce a credible supplement).

Not only that, but proprietary blends will also include fillers and whatnots to simply weigh up their product. This is also an area where we are not comfortable with such blends.

So, you can see that our concern is genuine in this case.

But moving on, Avinol PM is manufactured by a company called Advanced Nutraceuticals LLC and you can order their product via their website.

However, the product as available on the website is priced quite high and you can find it at a much more reasonable rate at other places like Amazon.

Avinol PM Ingredients

Avinol PM contains three ingredients that are listed with the amounts per serving while the rest all form part of a proprietary blend.

So, let’s start this Avinol PM review with what has been listed with a stated dose.

Calcium

Some research shows that calcium may help the brain use tryptophan to manufacture melatonin. It can also work with magnesium to relax muscles and sedate the nerves.

This makes calcium a seemingly suitable contender as a good sleep ingredient that would help you stay asleep. It presents the potential of elevating melatonin levels while also assisting magnesium with its relaxant properties.

That said, Avinol PM uses 45 mg of calcium per serving.

This makes calcium more of a filler since 45 mg only makes for 5% of your recommended daily dose for calcium. In terms of nutritional efficacy, it can’t really do much to have any kind of improved or deep sleep effect.

The form used in Avinol PM is as dicalcium phosphate which is typically used in food items to improve texture or to remove water from foods. This is used to help extend the shelf life of products.

With only 45 mg of dicalcium phosphate per serving, it’s not hard to assume that the manufacturers probably used it for these reasons. It would otherwise be too lightly dosed to do anything for bringing about good sleep.

Magnesium

Magnesium is one of the more promising ingredients found in Avinol PM known for helping with falling asleep.  

Dosed at 200 mg, magnesium does offer sleep-related benefits.

It can help reduce nerve activity and quieten the mind. It can also work to lower blood pressure, reduce heart rate, and prevent night-time spasms.

In this case, while the dosage is adequate, the form of magnesium used in Avinol PM raises some questions.

Avinol PM uses magnesium oxide which, while provides a high loading of elemental magnesium, exhibits rather limited bioavailability. [1]

This makes it very hard for the body to absorb it and much of it gets excreted out of the system anyways.

L-theanine

This is perhaps the most correctly dosed ingredient on Avinol PM’s list.

Avinol PM uses 200 mg of L-theanine per serving which is plenty to work with.

This is a well-documented quality sleep aid that can help with improved sleep in a number of different ways.

First, it assists the body in producing more GABA, which helps calm the nervous system down. [2]

This combination also results in decreasing sleep latency, increasing sleep duration, and instilling deep sleep at night.

Second, it can help with lowering levels of excitatory brain chemicals and promote relaxation.

And finally, it has been associated with increasing alpha brain waves that promote a sense of calm, peace, and focus.

Together, the reason why this water-soluble amino acid is so potent is because it can cross the blood-brain barrier. This allows L-theanine to modulate inhibitory neurotransmitters and bring about anxiolytic and calming effects.

With its optimal dosing of this important amino acid, it’s safe to say that the sleep-inducing effects of Avinol PM, if any, primarily come from this important ingredient.

Proprietary Blend Ingredients in Avinol PM

The remaining ingredients in Avinol PM fall under a proprietary blend which is rather unfortunate.

As you will see, many of these ingredients could work effectively in promoting sleep but because of their unknown dosage facts, it becomes impossible to know their efficacy.

Hops Flower Powder

Hops is a natural sedative that may help promote calm and relaxation leading to a deep sleep experience.

Something hops have in common with L-theanine is its ability to increase GABA levels in the brain.

GABA reduces neuronal activity in the brain and central nervous system which has the effect of promoting relaxation, reducing stress, and boosting sleep.

The recommended dose for hops according to clinical research should be between 1.5 to 2 mg.

However, as part of a proprietary blend in Avinol PM, there is no way to determine how much hops is actually included. This means that there is no way to track its potency or if it’s having any kind of effect on sleep quality.

Valerian Root Extract

A common ingredient in many sleep supplements, valerian root is an herb that has long been considered helpful in treating various sleep disorders like insomnia, reducing anxiety, and improving sleep quality at night.

But while there is a lot of anecdotal support for its efficacy, science doesn’t seem to hold up these claims.

There is some limited scientifically reviewed research that points to its mild sedative effects on the brain and some others that indicate valerian root to lessen the time it takes to fall asleep.

For the most part, many valerian capsules vary from 250 to 1000 mg for the herb take effect. As such, a dose that falls between this range is considered safe.

But with Avinol PM it’s impossible to get that number in a proprietary blend that is dosed at 100 mg in total.

So, where does valerian root stand in this sleep supplement?

It’s hard to tell but our best bet is that it’s heavily underdosed and only used as a filler instead.

GABA

GABA is a recurring ingredient in sleep supplements, so it’s no surprise that it makes an appearance on Avinol PM’s list of ingredients.

GABA that is internally produced by the body is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, lowering neural cell activity and facilitating sleep.

GABA supplements, on the other hand, are up for debate and how they may differ from internally produced GABA.

The biggest concern here is whether supplemental GABA in Avinol Pm crosses the blood-brain barrier as well as naturally produced GABA. [3]

Gaba is also important for muscle regulation which plays a part in calming the mind down and getting ready for a good night of sleep.

Recommended dose effective for sleep-related issues stands between 100-200 mg.

But as is seen with all proprietary blends, there is absolutely no way to determine how much GABA is present in Avinol PM’s single serving.

For us, this renders the inclusion of this otherwise promising ingredient quite purposeless in Avinol PM.

Chamomile Flower Powder

Used as a popular calming tea, chamomile owes its relaxing properties to an antioxidant called apigenin.

Its mildly sedative effects have been used to manage insomnia and traditional healers value it for its calming effects.

But if you look at the scientifically reviewed data, a lot remains to be desired. The studies are limited and the results inconclusive.

Whatever studies that have been done reveal that a dose of 270 mg of chamomile may possibly be effective for bringing on sleep in chronically insomniac adults.

Once again, it’s highly improbable that Avinol PM delivers anything even close to that number.

We think it’s probably better to just take chamomile as a tea to experience its benefits rather than rely on an ineffective supplement such as Avinol PM.

Passionflower Powder

Anecdotal evidence for passion flower’s sleep-enhancing properties ranges from mediocre to impressive, but we can’t say the same for scientific backing.

Passionflower powder has, however, been used for treating insomnia, anxiety, and pain relief by herbalists.

It’s believed that it does so by boosting GABA levels to improve sleep quality at night. Some of the effects of this include sleep induction and muscle spasm relief.

Passionflower contains GABA but there is concern over whether GABA consumed in this form reaches the brain or not.

Limited studies show passionflower to either have anxiolytic effects or sedative effects, but results remain inconclusive.

Experts recommend doses of around 450 – 1 gram of passionflower for inducing sleep-related effects. And the only way to know if a formula contains that much is when the manufacturers advertise it.

However, that is not the case with Avinol PM and so we will never know.

But if you wish to experience the potency of this flowering herb, you may try it as a tea and see if it does anything for you.

Lemon Balm Concentrate

Lemon balm does have some clinical evidence showing the potential to relieve restlessness and promote calm and relaxation. [4]

Many of the benefits associated with lemon balm tie in with reducing excitability and getting the body ready to fall asleep.

However, this evidence is limited and weak and applies mostly to when the lemon balm is taken as a tea. In many cases, lemon balm is combined with valerian root to optimize potency.

Clinical evidence suggests an effective dose to be at 300 mg for lemon balm, but with a propriety blend that stands at only 100 mg, it’s just not doable.   

5-HTP

5-HTP is a compound that our bodies make from the amino acid tryptophan. One of its primary functions is to act as a precursor to serotonin which calms and relaxes the body.

In relation to achieving better sleep, 5-HTP crosses the blood-brain barrier and moves to the brain where it converts directly into serotonin.

Serotonin is then converted to melatonin which regulates sleep. As such, supplementing with 5-HTP may promote sleep by increasing melatonin production in the body.

It is recommended to take 5-HTP before bed to minimize sleep disturbances and doze off faster.

Scientific studies recommend doses ranging from 25-500 mg for sleep-related issues, anxiety, and other conditions.

But just by looking at these figures, we can tell that Avinol PM is incapable of accommodating an adequate dose of 5-HTP in its proprietary blend.

Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone produced naturally by the body and is critical for regulating a person’s sleep cycle.

It is commonly found in sleep aids of all sorts as it can cross the blood-brain barrier and start doing its work by bringing on drowsiness faster. [5]

You only need around 2 mg of melatonin to start feeling its effects and we can only hope that Avinol PM’ is able to deliver that. But since there is no way to verify if it does, we can’t say much about its potency in this sleep aid.