What is the new sleep supplement ?
REFIX Formula Guide
Most supplements pick a lane: sleep, or gut health. REFIX was built on the idea that they're the same lane. Here's what it actually does, what's in it, why it's taken at night, and why nobody else is doing it this way.
The Short Version
- REFIX is a 2-in-1 evening formula: research-matched doses for sleep support and gut support, in one 8g serving, not two separate products.
- It's taken at night because that's when your nervous system, digestion and stress hormones are already meant to be winding down. REFIX is timed to work with that rhythm, not force it.
- No melatonin. It's a prescription medicine in the UK, and REFIX is built to support your body's own calming and circadian pathways instead of supplying a hormone.
- Consistency is what makes it work. The calming ingredients can be felt within days. The gut ingredients need several weeks of daily use to reshape the microbiome, so REFIX is designed as a nightly ritual, not an occasional fix.
- Full ingredient list, exact doses and the reasoning behind each one are below, along with a short note from our founder on why REFIX exists.
What REFIX Actually Does
REFIX is an evening powder, one scoop stirred into water, built to support two things at once: falling asleep more easily and staying asleep, and supporting a settled, well-fed gut. It's formulated around the understanding that these aren't two separate problems. They run on the same feedback loop, known as the gut-brain axis, so a formula addressing only one side is only ever solving half the picture.
In practical terms, that means REFIX combines calming amino acids and botanicals dosed to support your nervous system's wind-down at night, alongside a prebiotic fibre and two probiotic strains dosed to support the gut environment that regulates stress signalling and mood-related neurotransmitter production. One formula, one nightly step, working on both ends at once.
How REFIX Is Different
Walk down any supplement aisle and you'll find a sleep product and, somewhere else entirely, a gut health product. Different brands, different price tags, different times of day, and often doses trimmed down to fit neatly into a capsule rather than matched to what the research actually used. REFIX was built the opposite way round.
The Usual Approach
- Sleep and gut sold as two separate purchases, two separate routines
- Capsule formats that cap how much of an active ingredient can realistically fit inside
- Doses often diluted to hit a price point rather than a research-matched amount
- Melatonin used as a shortcut, often without addressing why sleep is disrupted in the first place
The REFIX Approach
- One evening formula addressing sleep and gut as the connected system they are
- Powder format, so actives like 3,000mg of L-glycine and 2,200mg of inulin can be included at full, meaningful doses
- Every dose set to match the amounts used in the underlying research, not a token amount
- No melatonin. The formula supports the body's own relaxation and circadian pathways instead
A capsule has a hard ceiling on how much it can hold. To fit REFIX's full ingredient list into capsules at the same doses, you'd need well over a dozen a night. The powder format exists specifically so nothing has to be watered down to fit the delivery method.
Why It's Taken At Night
REFIX isn't timed to the evening by habit, it's timed to the evening because that's when the body is already primed to do this work. Cortisol, your primary stress hormone, is naturally meant to taper off as the evening goes on. The parasympathetic nervous system, the "rest and digest" side of your nervous system, becomes more dominant. And digestively, a large share of gut housekeeping activity, the wave-like muscular contractions that clear the digestive tract between meals, happens overnight when you're not actively eating.
REFIX is built to work with that window rather than against it. Magnesium and glycine support muscle relaxation and a gentle drop in core body temperature, one of the body's own signals that it's time to move into deeper sleep. L-theanine, lemon balm and chamomile work on GABA-related pathways to quiet a busy mind without sedating it. And the inulin and probiotic strains get several undisturbed hours to work on the gut environment, uninterrupted by the digestion of a meal.
Worth Knowing
Taking REFIX in the morning wouldn't do nothing, but it would be working against the body's natural rhythm instead of with it. The evening timing is a deliberate part of how the formula is designed to work, not a stylistic choice.
The Gut-Brain Connection, In Plain Terms
Your gut and brain are in constant, two-way communication, largely via the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body and a direct line between your gut lining and your brainstem. Your gut is also where a large share of your body's serotonin, a neurotransmitter closely tied to mood and to the pathway that eventually supports healthy melatonin production, is produced.
95%
The approximate share of the body's serotonin produced in the gut rather than the brain. When the gut environment is out of balance, the signalling that reaches the brain along the gut-brain axis is affected too, which is one reason gut health and sleep quality are so closely linked.
This is also why stress and poor sleep tend to show up as gut symptoms, and why gut discomfort tends to disrupt sleep in return. It's a loop, not two separate systems taking turns. Supporting only one side, which is what most sleep or gut products do individually, leaves the other half of the loop untouched.
The Full Formula, Dose By Dose
Every active ingredient in REFIX is listed at the exact amount used in an 8g serving. Nothing is hidden behind a proprietary blend.
Supports sleep onset and sleep architecture
L-Glycine, 3,000mg
Matches the 3g dose used in the published research on glycine and sleep quality, linked to a gentle drop in core temperature and reduced time to fall asleep.
Calms the nervous system, relaxes muscle
Magnesium (Bisglycinate + Citrate), 250mg elemental
Two forms combined for gentle absorption and gut comfort. Provides 67% of the UK Nutrient Reference Value for magnesium, a cofactor in GABA and melatonin-related pathways.
Quiets a busy mind without sedating
L-Theanine, 200mg
Supports alpha brain wave activity and GABA signalling, associated with relaxed alertness rather than drowsiness.
Herbal support for GABA activity
Lemon Balm Extract (10:1), 80mg
Traditionally used for calm and settled digestion, with modern research pointing to gentle GABA-supporting activity.
Traditional calming botanical
Chamomile Extract (12:1), 50mg
Concentrated for its apigenin content, a compound studied for its relaxing properties.
Feeds beneficial gut bacteria
Chicory Root Fibre (Inulin), 2,200mg
A prebiotic fibre shown to support Bifidobacteria growth, providing the fuel the probiotic strains below need to establish.
Targeted gut-brain axis support
Bifidobacterium longum (BL88), 5 billion CFU
A well-studied species associated with gut-brain signalling research, paired here with a matching prebiotic to support colonisation.
Targeted gut-brain axis support
Lactobacillus reuteri (LE16), 5 billion CFU
A second, complementary strain, for 10 billion CFU total across the formula.
| Ingredient | Function | REFIX Dose (per 8g serving) |
|---|---|---|
| L-Glycine | Sleep-support amino acid | 3,000mg |
| Chicory Root Fibre (Inulin) | Prebiotic fibre | 2,200mg |
| Magnesium Bisglycinate | Elemental magnesium, gentle absorption | 175mg elemental |
| Magnesium Citrate | Elemental magnesium, supports motility | 75mg elemental |
| L-Theanine | Calming amino acid | 200mg |
| Lemon Balm Extract (10:1) | Herbal GABA support | 80mg |
| Chamomile Extract (12:1) | Herbal calming agent | 50mg |
| Bifidobacterium longum (BL88) | Gut-brain probiotic strain | 5 billion CFU |
| Lactobacillus reuteri (LE16) | Gut-brain probiotic strain | 5 billion CFU |
Total elemental magnesium across both forms: 250mg (67% NRV). Total probiotic count: 10 billion CFU across both strains. No melatonin, no proprietary blends, no fillers hiding the actual dose.
What It Tastes Like
Several of these ingredients are naturally bitter or mineral tasting on their own, particularly the two magnesium forms and the concentrated herbal extracts. REFIX is balanced to offset that: glycine carries a natural mild sweetness, the inulin is close to neutral, and a natural vanilla flavouring rounds off the sharper edges. Most people describe it as mild and slightly sweet with a soft vanilla character, rather than the chalky, hard-to-drink taste of an unflavoured mineral powder.
Why There's No Melatonin
This is a deliberate choice, not an oversight. In the UK, melatonin is classified as a prescription-only medicine, not a food supplement, for good reason: it's a hormone, and introducing an external hormone to regulate sleep is a different category of intervention to supporting the body's own systems.
REFIX takes the other route. Rather than supplying a hormone from outside, it's built around the amino acids, minerals and botanicals that support your body's own relaxation response and the circadian and gut-brain pathways involved in healthy sleep, without the grogginess some people report the morning after taking melatonin, and without training the body to rely on an external hormone to switch off.
Worth Knowing
Melatonin tells the body it's night. REFIX supports the systems that help the body wind down and repair once it already knows that. They're solving different problems.
Consistency Is Key
Why It's A Ritual, Not A One-Off
The calming ingredients, magnesium, glycine, L-theanine and the botanicals, can support how you feel within the first few nights. The gut side is different. Reshaping the balance of bacteria in the gut with a prebiotic and probiotic strains is a gradual process that generally takes several weeks of consistent, daily use to show its full effect. Taking REFIX occasionally will touch the sleep side and largely miss the gut side. Taken nightly, both sides build together.
How To Take REFIX
From Our Founder
I built REFIX after two years of barely sleeping. I was burnt out, wired most evenings, and reaching for a drink just to switch my head off. My gut was a mess at the same time, and it didn't feel like a coincidence, it felt like the same problem showing up in two places.
When I went looking for help, I found sleep products and gut products sold as if they had nothing to do with each other, often at doses far below what the research actually used. So I set out to build the thing I couldn't find: one evening formula, dosed properly, addressing both sides of that loop at once, without melatonin.
REFIX is a nightly ritual for me now, not a quick fix. This is my own experience and the reason the formula exists, not a claim about what it will do for you specifically. Everyone's starting point is different, so please speak to a healthcare professional if you're managing a health condition or unsure whether it's right for you.
Barnaby, Founder, Alterv Health
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is REFIX taken at night rather than in the morning?
Because that's when the ingredients are designed to work with the body's own rhythm: cortisol naturally tapering off, the nervous system shifting toward rest, and several hours of undisturbed digestive housekeeping for the gut-support ingredients to work in.
Why doesn't REFIX contain melatonin?
Melatonin is a prescription-only medicine in the UK. REFIX is built instead around amino acids, minerals and botanicals that support the body's own relaxation and circadian pathways, rather than supplying an external hormone.
How long before I notice a difference?
The calming ingredients can support how you feel within the first few nights. The gut-focused ingredients, the inulin and the two probiotic strains, generally need several weeks of consistent daily use to meaningfully shift the gut environment, so give it a fair run rather than judging it after one night.
What does REFIX actually taste like?
Mild and slightly sweet, with a soft vanilla character. On their own, the magnesium and herbal extracts lean bitter, but the formula is balanced with natural vanilla flavouring and glycine's mild sweetness to offset that.
Is REFIX a sedative?
No. Nothing in the formula forces sleep the way a sedative or melatonin does. It's designed to support the body's own calming and gut-signalling pathways, which is why it's positioned as a nightly routine rather than an occasional sleep aid.
The Bottom Line
Sleep and gut health run on the same loop, so treating them as two separate purchases only ever addresses half of it. REFIX combines research-matched doses of both in one evening formula, timed to work with the body's natural night-time rhythm, without melatonin. The formula does the calming work within days. The gut works on its own timeline, which is why showing up for it nightly is what actually makes the difference.
One formula, both ends of the loop
Build the ritual, let it do the work
REFIX combines full, research-matched doses of magnesium, glycine, L-theanine, calming botanicals, prebiotic fibre and two gut-brain probiotic strains, in one evening formula. No melatonin, no proprietary blends.
Third-party tested | No proprietary blends | About Alterv Health
This article, including the founder's personal account, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Individual experiences vary and are not a guarantee of results. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before beginning any new supplement, particularly if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication, or managing a health condition.