I've only been using kava about a week, insomnia (lifelong chronic) was my main reason to begin this journey, but Im also a recovering alcaholic with 1 year of sobriety under my belt. Insomnia was the main reason I drank, but quality sleep seems to be the main thing keeping me from drinking (alcohol now severely screws up my sleep for about a week). While I definitely have been enjoying the effects of kava, and using kona kava instant as my introduction, I find I still have to take about 1.5 mg melatonin to finally drift off to sleep. That seems to be working consistantly 2-3 nights now. I have tried kava with a perscription sleep med, but that resulted in a terrible groggy feeling the next day. I have tried it with a herbal blend called "dream release" which is supposed to help induce dreams for 2 evenings. It has ashwagandha and some other stuff in it, and I suspect I have a slight REM disterbance which interferes with the quality of my sleep. One night resulted in the best sleep I had felt in years. The other night resulted in a resless sleep (I refer to as "half sleep"). I wonder if something in the "dream release" is a slight stimulant (similar to how nicotine patches cause crazy restless dreams if left on). So for now till I find a more effective kava, I think I'll just use the 1.5 mg melatonin. Less is sometimes more in the world of melatonin, and too much seems to result in bad quality sleep and groggyness. I just ordered some GHK instant sampler, and some kava.com instant, so I'll be curious to see how those ones work out as I understand Kona Kava is not regarded all that well. I'm also looking forward to the end of the reverse tolerance and the rest of the kava journey as its been quite pleasant so far.