Kinobody Sleep Supplement Review: Amazing Sleep And Superior Recovery
I’ve always been a very mentally active person with a more “high-strung” energy.
As such, sleep has always been a struggle for me.
Even something as simple as working out too late, having an afternoon cup of coffee, or just being too mentally stimulated at night would leave me wide awake for hours.
And sometimes, even if I could fall asleep, I’d wake up in the middle of the night, completely alert and mind racing, almost out of nowhere, and unable to fall asleep until the sun started coming up.
Some of these issues I was able to fix through fixing my diet, eating more carbs, and learning about bioenergetics and metabolism through one of my favorite researchers, Ray Peat, PhD.
But even though I’ve improved my sleep greatly, I’m still always looking out for any supplements or nutrients that might be able to further improve my sleep and help with my recovery from workouts. I’m very active, doing multiple weightlifting sessions per week along with Jeet Kune Do training and surfing all mixed in, so maximizing my recovery is extremely important if I’m gonna keep up with it all.
I’ve tried basic supplements, like melatonin, in the past, but they’ve always left me feeling more tired and groggy than if I just hadn’t slept, and it actually seemed to hurt my recovery. I later found out that melatonin is close to serotonin, which is actually more like the hibernation hormone than the happy hormone, and that it actually destroys real sleep and instead puts you into a knocked out, non-restful state. Anyone who has consistently taken melatonin can probably relate to the fact that you feel worse and your recover is terrible when taking it.
I recently reviewed a new pre-workout called Octane by one of my favorite fitness sites, Kinobody, and so when I saw that they had also just created a sleep supplement, I was very curious about what was in it and if it would work. As it turns out, the Kinobody Sleep Supplement is one of the only — if not THE only — sleep supplement I’ve ever found that doesn’t include melatonin.
As I mentioned in my in-depth Kinobody Octane Review, I had noticed that when I took Octane before late workouts, I would have trouble falling asleep because of the caffeine in it.
That’s when I really decided that I needed to give the Kinobody Sleep supplement a try, and give it a full, objective trial like I’ve done for other supplements, including the testosterone-boosting Testro-X, and the very effective probiotic Floracil 50.
Kinobody Sleep Supplement Review: Ingredients
Like I mentioned, the Kinobody Sleep supplement is quite possibly one of the only sleep supplements that doesn’t include the harmful hormone, melatonin, that makes me feel super groggy and tanks my recovery (because it puts you into a hibernation state, rather than a restful sleep state).
But without melatonin, would I still feel the relaxing and sleep-promoting effects it claimed to have?
Kinobody Sleep has a lot of studies backing up each of the ingredients, so the research definitely supports it’s claim.
One thing I love about both of the Kinobody supplements is that neither uses a shady “proprietary blend” where the maker hides the actual amount of ingredients in the supplement. To me, that’s a surefire way to scam people out of actually getting the ingredients they’re paying for.
Similar to Kinobody’s pre-workout “Octane”, the Kinobody Sleep is comprised of 3 different “blends”. The Sleep Induction Blend is designed to help you relax and fall asleep faster, the Restoration & Recovery Blend is designed to improve the quality of sleep and the recovery you get out of it, and the Stimulant Removal Factor is supposed to clear your body of caffeine and other stimulants to prevent them from negatively impacting your sleep.
Here’s what in Kinobody Sleep:
The Sleep Induction Blend:
- Ashwagandha (KSM-66) — 300 mg
- Lemon Balm Extract — 400 mg
The Resotration & Recovery Blend:
- L-Glycine — 2000 mg
- L-Theanine — 300 mg
- Magnesium — 200 mg
The Stimulant Removal Factor:
- Rutaecarpine — 100 mg
This is a very unique blend of ingredients, each backed with some solid research claiming that they do what Kinobody claims they do.
But would it work in real life and actually help my sleep?
Kinobody Sleep Supplement Review: Ordering & Delivery
Very similar to when I purchased Octane, the webpage for Kino Sleep was very professional and looked trustworthy, as was their checkout process and payment entry.
Again, I’ve ordered from Kinobody before, so I knew that it was trustworthy, but it’s worth noting regardless.
I got Kino Sleep in the mail about 2 days later, as per usual with Kinobody supplements, and although it came in a manilla mailing envelope, the bottle was very sleek and cool looking, with a black and purple theme to it.
Kinobody Sleep Supplement Review: Initial Night Trial
As I tend to be with all new supplements I try out, I was pretty excited to see how this one worked, and I was hoping to feel some good effects. Of course I did so while trying to remain as objective as possible so I could know for sure if it was actually helping and not just getting a placebo effect.
Having said that, being “excited” for a “sleep” supplement is probably contradictory to its purpose, so maybe my excitement was more of an “anti-placebo” (who knows? lol).
Anyway, I took one scoop of Kinobody Sleep and mixed it with cold water about 30 minutes before I planned to go to sleep.
The flavor was good, but a little interesting. It was a lemon-tasting tea almost, and while it didn’t taste bad, I later found that it was really tasty if you used hot water and sipped on it like a tea. Having said that, some nights I’d just mix it cold and down it when I was short for time or just feeling lazy.
Within about 15 minutes I started to feel some of the effects — most notably, I felt a heavy feeling in my limbs, and felt like I was sinking into my couch.
It was pretty relaxing.
The Sleep Induction Blend has ashwagandha (KSM-66) in it, and I’ve had experience with this feeling when I was writing my Testro-X review (which contains the same ashwagandha). With Kinobody Sleep though, the effect was much stronger, probably because of the lemon balm and maybe some of the other ingredients.
In fact, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open while I was reading, so I went and got ready for bed earlier than I had planned.
The relaxing feeling was at its peak when I was laying in bed, and I actually tried to keep myself awake because I wanted to enjoy the calming feeling — it was extremely pleasant, almost like the feeling you get from a really good meditation.
(Edit: I later saw the research that L-Theanine can help you lower your brain waves into the alpha and theta states, which exactly what happens during a good meditation session, so I was completely right in making that connection in how it felt).
Of course, despite trying to stay awake to enjoy the feeling, I drifted off pretty quickly.
Throughout the night I didn’t really wake up — maybe lightly a few times between sleep cycles and at the end of certain dreams. Actually, I did have some good dreams that night, which I’m not sure is due to Kinobody Sleep or not.
Each time I woke up though, I felt good. It wasn’t like the jolty and jittery awake feeling I would get when I couldn’t fall back to sleep. Instead, this was like an oh-thank-god-I-get-to-keep-sleeping-cuz-this-feels-so-good feeling.
When I woke up in the morning, I felt really refreshed and not groggy at all. Usually I have a hard time waking up, but I actually got out of bed pretty easily and had my brain “online” much faster than usual.
Kinobody Sleep Supplement Review: Longer-Term Effects
Usually when I take supplements, I’m really looking for effects the first time taking it, and my body isn’t used to getting those nutrients and herbs in that amount.
Because of this, I always want to judge the longer-term effects of continuing to use any supplement before I judge its true effectiveness.
So I continued taking Kinobody Sleep for the following month, and found that under most circumstances, the effects were still present. I can’t say that every time I took it felt as good as the first night, but it was definitely still positively impacting my sleep, and there were also some nights where my sleep was absolutely incredible (again, being someone who has always had problems with sleep, this was a big deal).
One of the biggest benefits I noticed (as I talked about in my Kinobody Octane pre-workout supplement review) was that whenever I worked out late and took the pre-workout (which contains caffeine), Kinobody Sleep really helped to nullify the effect of the late caffeine.
There’s a cool ingredient in Kinobody Sleep called “rutaecarpine” that is responsible for this, as it binds to caffeine in your body and inactivates it, allowing you to use the boost of caffeine when you want it, and then clear your body of it when you’re ready for sleep.
I think this ALONE makes Kinobody Sleep one of the coolest sleep supplements around (let alone the other positives I got from it).
Kinobody Sleep Supplement Review: Side Effects
Unlike melatonin and other serotonin-based sleep aids, Kinobody Sleep gave me absolutely not grogginess, no headaches, and no other noticeable side effects.
The only thing I would mention is that it makes you noticeably drowsy after you take it (but then again, that’s not really a side effect, since that’s the POINT of the supplement). However, it’s probably worth taking note of so you don’t take it at a time when you need to be alert.
All in all, the results from taking Kinobody Sleep regularly were much better nightly sleep, more energy in the day, and greatly improved recovery for all my intense exercise sessions.
Overall I just felt great without feeling groggy.
