Yes it is a surprisingly good option - last year i used to take its 1x a week to have a good nights sleep and imo the quality of sleep can rival even benzos. That being said i'm naturally pretty resistant to it so IIRC a minimum sleep-aid dose was at least 2gr.
It is a GABA-B modulator and also acts on VGCC (voltage-gated calcium channels) like pregabalin, so to simplify it, it's kind of a mix between baclofen and pregabalin. Benzos are modulators of GABA-A system and share almost 0 tolerance with baclofen/phenibut or VGCC drugs like gabapentin and pregabalin.
I made this post a month or 2 ago and it could shine some knowledge about sleep-aids:
Most of these drugs were already covered, but for the sake of clarity we should group them by their pharmacological action:
1. Magnesium (OTC obviously). You might have to test several different forms of magnesium to see which ones makes you most drowsy. Take 100% daily recommended dosage, but obviously not every day as you already get some from food.
2. Melatonin - one of the most mild and non-addictive sleep aids with virtually 0 side effects (OTC)
3. CBD, works well but can be expensive depending on dosages needed (OTC)
4. Weed also has varying degrees of CBD depending on strain and i would group it into the same class, if drug test is not a problem then its cheaper than CBD oil. Also works well
5. antihistamine - this includes doxylamine (OTC), diphenhydramine (OTC), hydroxyzine. Good thing about them you cant get addicted because they stop working after a few days.
EDIT: Gabapentinoids such as pregabalin or gabapentin. Since pregabalin is more of a recreational drug i'd recommend gabapentin if it works for you.
6. Baclofen, GHB, phenibut (OTC) affect GABA-B amongst other things. But i'd only use baclofen as a sleep aid personally.
7. Narcotics. they aren't really good for sleep long-term and also risk of addiction.
8. GABA (OTC). Z-drugs, benzodiazepines, carisoprodol affect GABA-A levels and can be a very slippery slope to addiction (except pure GABA).
9. Antipsychotics are prescription only and a lot of them like quetiapine have anthistaminc activity at lower dosages just like antihistamines, so there's really no point. I'd avoid them personally.
So if i had to rank them in order of health or addiction: Some BS plant extract from your pharmacy > Melatonin >Magnesium> CBD > GABA > Weed > Antihistamine > probably baclofen or gabapentin> GHB / phenibut > Narcotics > z-drugs & benzos (addiction)
If everything up to baclofen works then do not go futher imo, because you risk serious addiction.
EDIT: i forgot to add good ol' magnesium. I use trimagnesium bicitrate (make sure its quality) 100% dose couple of times a week before bed and it makes me noticably drowsy and sleepy. Now if you're going through benzo withdrawal it might not help on its own (but neither will melatonin or CBD), but if some time has passed it will work and you can combine it with other sleep-aids.
So if i had to sum it up:
- first get quality magnesium such as magnesium glycinate or trimagnesium bicitrate like i do (cheaper since i have it powder form).
- 2nd get melatonin and 5-htp, melatonin can be used more often and if 5-htp works for you as a sleep-aid then using every few weeks will be great.
- 3rd get some quality GABA pills and try few grams as a sleep-aid.
- 4th get CBD or weed. Alternatively, you can buy oleamide which i have recently discovered and is MUCH cheaper than CBD, yet from my own experiments has way less side effects. It interacts with cannabinergic system for sleep and is also GABAergic (not to be confused with benzos because it's nothing like that).
- 5th get some antihistamines like diphenhydramine and doxylamine they're are freely available and very cheap.
- 6th if you can acquire baclofen, then do so as i would recommend it over benzos. While phenibut is very similiar in action (and chemical structure, i guess you could call it deschloro-baclofen, but i'm not a chemist), its also much more addictive, has long duration of action and is more of a dirty drug. GHB also works on GABA-B system but it's also very addictive, that being said it can be very useful sleep-aid if you know exactly what you're doing - for tricky short-term (4hr) power sleep when you really need it and you wake up energetic and clear-headed due to dopamine rebound and short half-life.
So yeah if these sleep-aids work for you i'd suggest you ditch benzos completely.