Does magnesium help you sleep?

Are you on the quest for a good night’s sleep? You may try different things like pink noise, melatonin, or lettuce water. But have you ever thought that magnesium help sleep? Yes, recent research has confirmed its potential to help you catch some Zzzs.

Magnesium plays very important roles in your body, including muscle and nerve function, building bones and DNA, and regulating blood sugar levels and blood pressure. However, some research studies also claim that magnesium may also be the best alternative for a good night’s sleep. Although the evidence for magnesium for sleep is not enough, people have reported that it works. 

In addition, various studies show that magnesium is associated with a range of benefits, and improving sleep quality is one of them. This mineral is naturally found in many foods and can be available in the form of supplements. However, researchers are still striving to find more evidence to prove how magnesium is good for night’s sleep. They believe that this mineral positively impacts your sleep quality in various ways, including increasing the sleep-promoting hormone called melatonin, regulating neurotransmitters for the central nervous system (CNS), and reducing the stress hormone cortisol.

In this article, you may have a chance to find how magnesium is good for sleep, ways it affects your sleep quality, other benefits, foods containing this mineral, and how to supplement with magnesium. Here you may also examine the risks of excessive intake of magnesium to compare it, which can help you to compare it with melatonin.

What is Magnesium?

Magnesium is a well-known mineral found in your body that helps improve your nerve and muscle function, heart rhythm consistency, blood sugar control, blood pressure regulation, and bone development. According to studies, magnesium also helps people follow their sleep schedule naturally and get high-quality peaceful sleep. That’s why it is necessary to maintain adequate levels of magnesium in your body. You may replenish your stores by eating magnesium-rich foods daily. Taking dietary supplements can also help ensure that you’re taking enough magnesium. According to the Recommended Dietary Allowance for magnesium, you can take 300 to 400 milligrams of magnesium daily. However, this dose is adequate for adults. Sex, age, and pregnancy status are counted for determining the adequate amount of magnesium for good sleep.

How does Magnesium Help You Sleep Well?

Research still fails to confirm the validity of supplements for helping you snooze easily. In addition, some other options can help you. However, a team of researchers believe that a mineral, magnesium, may help promote better sleep in the following ways:

Decreasing Cortisol: The stress hormone, cortisol, contributes to functions such as fight or flight response. Decreasing levels of cortisol can help promote calm and peaceful sleep.

Relaxing Muscles: Magnesium helps inhibit a neurotransmitter, called the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, which can help promote muscle relaxation. This also helps improve sleep and general relaxation.

Regulating GABA in the CNS: This is another neurotransmitter in your brain that helps calm your nervous system by stopping various signals from transmitting. Magnesium has a pivotal role in regulating GABA, which may result in promoting calmness, and acts as a sedative to promote sleep.

Promoting Melatonin: A deficiency in magnesium causes a decrease in melatonin, a hormone that helps you maintain your circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is your day-night cycle for sleep schedule that induces feelings of wakefulness and sleepiness.

Some more important benefits of Magnesium include:

Alleviate Depression and Anxiety

Depression and anxiety are two major factors that hurt your sleep quality. Amazingly, magnesium has been found as an effective mineral that can help alleviate both of these mood disorders. Studies support that magnesium deficiency may lead to mental confusion, such as depression and anxiety. However, emerging research indicates that it can enhance conventional antidepressant therapy and has possible potential ability to treat anxiety. 

Its working pattern for alleviation of these two mood disorders isn’t fully understood, it seems to be linked with magnesium’s ability to stimulate the calming neurotransmitters in your nervous system. If you have a mood disorder causing insomnia, magnesium just might help you.

Benefits of Magnesium in Controlling Certain Health Conditions

Magnesium Is beneficial for you in many ways. Its deficiency can increase the risk of developing certain health conditions. This mineral can help you in several ways, including:

Lowering Blood Pressure: A magnesium-rich diet helps lower blood pressure, which could be possibly helpful for those who are affected by hypertension attacks. According to an older study, magnesium supplements are effective for lowering blood pressure, but only to a small extent.

Reducing the Risk of Osteoporosis: Magnesium is a good source for improving the concentration of parathyroid and vitamin D, to promote bone density. A diet rich in magnesium may help decrease bone loss or osteoporosis.

Lowering the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Eating a magnesium-rich diet helps lower type 2 diabetes to a greater extent. However, more research is needed to determine how magnesium is effective in improving glycemic control in people with diabetes.

Reducing Migraine Headache: A deficiency of magnesium is associated with promoting migraine headaches. Studies support that taking magnesium supplements, alone or with other medications, can prevent headaches. However, the research has not provided enough evidence to prove the efficacy of magnesium as a preventive method or treatment of migraine. But never take a high dosage of magnesium, without discussing it with your doctor, as it can result in severe side effects.

Regulating Circadian Rhythm

Magnesium is not only effective for getting to sleep easily but it also plays a pivotal role in maintaining a proper circadian rhythm to achieve restful and deep sleep as well. 

According to a study, older adults were given 400 mg of magnesium or a placebo. The magnesium group was found with better quality sleep. 

Another study was made involving old age people who were suffering from insomnia. They were given magnesium supplements with some other minerals. The participants also showed results of better sleep compared to the placebo group. Another recent study showed that a magnesium deficiency in mice resulted in disturbed sleep cycles that are restless and uncomfortable. But this thing doesn’t evaluate the effects of magnesium on humans.

All this evidence proves the mineral’s influence on the nervous system. Studies confirmed that magnesium blocks more excitable molecules from binding neurons, resulting in a peaceful and calmer nervous system.

However, these studies still have not confirmed if younger adults would benefit from magnesium supplements, as the research only studied the effects of magnesium supplements on old adults with insomnia.

How does Magnesium Deficiency Interfere with Your Sleep?

Not having enough magnesium in your body causes difficulty in sleep and even insomnia. A study was made on mice to check the effects of magnesium on sleep. The results found that optimal levels of this mineral are required for normal sleep and the disturbance in its levels, whether low or high, can cause troubled sleep. Certain people have magnesium deficiency, including:

Older Adults: Older adults are less efficient at absorbing magnesium than younger ones. Therefore, older people have less magnesium in their diets.

People with Digestive Diseases: Digestive tract problems can cause your body not to absorb minerals and vitamins properly, which may result in deficiencies of minerals or vitamins.

People with Alcohol Dependence: People who consume alcohol in excessive amounts can experience magnesium deficiency.

People with Diabetes: Excessive magnesium loss happens in people living with diabetes and insulin resistance.

Last but not least, not consuming enough magnesium may lead to sleep problems.

How to Supplement with Magnesium?

You can intake magnesium through your food, beverages, medications, and supplements. However, these tolerable levels of magnesium are lower than the recommended daily intake allowance. You should not exceed specific daily dosages, in milligrams for various types of people, while tang, and magnesium supplements. These groups are:

• Birth-12 Months: According to research, magnesium supplements are not suitable for this group. They have not established safe intake levels of magnesium supplements for newborns and infants.
• 1-5 years:60 mg.
• 6-10 years: 100 mg.
• 11-15 years: 300 mg.
• 16-20 years: 350 mg.

Foods Rich in Magnesium

A wide range of plant and animal food is rich in magnesium. Food manufacturers also add magnesium to cereals, beverages, and other food items.

Foods containing magnesium, include:

• Cultured yogurt.
• Nuts.
• Beans.
• Green leafy vegetables.
• Legumes.
• Whole grains.
• Seeds.

Risks linked with Intake of Higher Amounts of Magnesium

Taking higher amounts of magnesium, whether in the form of foods or supplements may cause several health conditions, such as:

• Cardiac arrest.
• Muscle weakness.
• Abdominal pain.
• Irregular heartbeat.
• Diarrhea.
• Low blood pressure.
• Urinary retention.
• Vomiting and nausea.
• Lethargy.
• Magnesium toxicity.
• Breathing problems.

Magnesium supplements can interact with certain medications and affect your systems negatively. These medicines include:

• Bisphosphonates.
• Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).
• Diuretics.
• Antibiotics.

Magnesium vs. Melatonin

There are many ways through which melatonin and magnesium help you sleep peacefully at night. Magnesium and melatonin both help promote sleep-inducing substances in your body. They both work together to help improve sleep in people with disturbed circadian rhythms and regulate the circadian cycle. People often use them separately but you can use them in combined form if the symptoms of insomnia get worse. Studies showed that magnesium works more efficiently to promote good sleep and reduce insomnia symptoms when used in combination with other mineral supplements.

Ways to Take Magnesium to Help Good Sleep

The Drug and Medicine Institute of the Health Department has suggested a daily dietary intake of 300 to 350 mg of magnesium for adult women and 350 to 400 mg for adult men. In addition, magnesium can be taken with drinking water and eating foods, like fruits, meat, fish, cereals, vegetables, and nuts.

However, very few studies supported the effects of magnesium supplements on insomnia. So it’s hard to recommend a specific amount. However, some old clinical trials used amounts in the range of 200-450 mg. The upper limit is considered safe. So it’s good to avoid its higher doses without consulting your healthcare provider. 

Although it is proven that magnesium can help good sleep at night, an important step is to make sure you’re taking adequate amounts of magnesium from whole foods. However, there are indeed no specific recommendations about how much magnesium to take to improve sleep.

Special Considerations while Taking Supplements

Considering lifestyle interventions is the very first step to solve the sleep troubles. You can try avoiding screens before bedtime, cutting back on caffeine, and establishing a regular bedtime as lifestyle changes to improve your sleep quality and maintain a circadian rhythm.

However, if you are planning to add magnesium supplements to your diet for this purpose, you should know some things first.

The uppermost safe limit for magnesium supplements is 300 mg per day.

In addition, remember taking magnesium supplements may cause side effects, such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and cramping in muscles.

Last but not least, supplemental magnesium can interfere with certain medications, such as blood pressure medications, antibiotics, and muscle relaxants.

Having a medical condition that can interact with supplemental magnesium or taking any medication without consulting with your doctor can cause complications.

Conclusion

Magnesium plays a pivotal role in activating your nervous mechanism which can make you quiet and calm. I’ll also help improve your sleep. Its balanced intake may also help relieve depression and anxiety symptoms, which can disrupt your sleep schedule and sleep quality as well.

Curate rec advanced research confirmed the positive effects of supplements magnesium on older adults, so it’s still not clear how it would impact young people. So, the first step to adding magnesium to your diet is eating magnesium-rich whole foods. Avoid taking supplemental magnesium without consulting a doctor.