Ingredient Spotlight — GABA (PharmaGABA®) · PM Formula

The Switch Between Wired and Calm

Your brain has a measurable signature for "relaxed but settled" — more alpha waves, fewer beta. A human EEG study found GABA shifted the dial in exactly that direction, within an hour of taking it.

The problem at night isn't that you're not tired. It's that you can't downshift — the mind stays in beta, the busy, vigilant gear it ran in all day, long after you've turned off the lights. Relaxation isn't the absence of effort; it's a specific brain state, and it has a fingerprint on an EEG. The question is whether you can get there on purpose.

The trial

Researchers measured brainwave activity by EEG after volunteers took water (control), L-theanine, or GABA, comparing the alpha-to-beta ratio at 0, 30, and 60 minutes.

What they found

• GABA raised the relaxation signature. It significantly increased alpha waves and decreased beta waves versus water — the pattern associated with a calm, settled state.
• A fast shift. The change was measurable within the first hour after intake.
• A clear effect. In this comparison, GABA produced the larger move in the alpha/beta ratio.

Relaxed isn't a mood you wait around for. Here, it was a measurable shift you could prompt — in about an hour.

Why it's in the PM formula

The state a nighttime formula is built to reach isn't sedation — it's the downshift out of beta that lets a busy mind actually let go. PharmaGABA® earns its place because that shift showed up on an EEG, quickly, in humans — and taken about an hour before bed, alongside L-theanine, it's aimed squarely at the transition from wired to calm.

Reference: Abdou AM, Higashiguchi S, Horie K, et al. Relaxation and immunity enhancement effects of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration in humans. BioFactors. 2006;26(3):201–208.
Read it: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16971751

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.