Everyone on TikTok is bleary-eyed and anxious, it generally appears. The generations that dominate the app—Gen Z and Millennials—are additionally these most beleaguered by nervousness, which is intently tied to sleep disturbances. It’s little marvel, then, that supposed sleep aids—like tart cherry juice, brown noise, melatonin, and CBD—are fixed fixtures on the social media platform.
Now, the app’s wellness neighborhood has latched onto the most recent complement touted to heal each poor sleep and nervousness: magnesium glycinate, one in every of almost a dozen over-the-counter dietary supplements that can be utilized to spice up the physique’s ranges of magnesium. Content material creators insist that it helps them go to mattress hours sooner than they normally do, eases insomnia, and lets them unwind on the finish of the day. One nurse practitioner on the app referred to as magnesium glycinate her “holy grail complement.”
So does it actually work?
What’s magnesium?
Magnesium, after all, isn’t new. It’s a mineral aspect that you have already got in your physique, because of meals like nuts, seeds, beans, and sure vegetable and dairy gadgets. It really works throughout the cells of a number of physique methods to maintain muscle tissue, nerves, and different components functioning correctly. Somebody attempting to promote you dietary supplements would possibly let you know that as many as half of U.S. adults are magnesium-deficient, and whereas that is technically true, most of us nonetheless get sufficient to stop any actual noticeable results, says Emily Tarleton, a registered dietitian and researcher at Northern Vermont College. Important magnesium deficiencies are a lot much less frequent and infrequently include signs like fatigue, weak spot, and nausea. Some researchers, nonetheless, have additionally prompt that there could possibly be connections between even gentle magnesium deficiency and sleep issues.
In nature, magnesium is at all times discovered together with different components, which means that there are numerous methods to ship it into the physique. Magnesium merchandise and dietary supplements mirror this range of kind. You should buy capsules (like magnesium citrate), beverage components (like magnesium lactate), or salts, which embody magnesium sulfate (aka Epsom salt) and are designed to ship small quantities of the mineral via the pores and skin. Magnesium glycinate is widespread as a result of it’s among the many capsule types which might be probably the most bioavailable, which means {that a} bigger quantity of the mineral can be utilized by the physique.
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Do magnesium dietary supplements enhance psychological well being or sleep?
Tarleton is among the few researchers who’ve studied magnesium’s impact on melancholy in a randomized scientific trial, the gold customary for remedy research. In her 2017 examine, she discovered that individuals who took 248 mg of elemental magnesium from magnesium chloride tablets every day reported enhancements in emotions of melancholy over six weeks. The identical 12 months, a overview of 18 small research discovered that individuals who took numerous magnesium dietary supplements reported enhancements in signs of tension. In Tarleton’s examine, “one of many different unwanted effects was elevated sleep,” she says. Although she hasn’t studied magnesium dietary supplements’ results immediately on sleep, it is sensible to her that the mineral would work as a sleep assist, significantly within the extra bioavailable types like magnesium glycinate and magnesium chloride. “Magnesium performs an enormous position in muscle contraction,” she says. “Athletes will generally use it for muscle cramping. So our concept is that the muscle rest facet impact may assist with sleep.”
When sleep high quality has appeared in magnesium supplementation analysis, it’s most frequently as a facet impact. In research the place magnesium has been given to folks with migraines, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and some different well being situations, sleep enhancements have generally been reported however are hardly ever formally tracked.
Just a few research have checked out magnesium dietary supplements solely as an insomnia therapy, however they’ve all been too small and focused to particular populations to attract conclusions from. One such examine in 2012 included solely aged individuals and had a pattern dimension of solely 46 folks. One other more moderen examine from 2019 included magnesium as an insomnia therapy, however solely as a part of a complement that additionally contained melatonin and vitamin B. In 2022, the authors of a overview that analyzed all research of magnesium as an insomnia therapy concluded that with out extra and longer-lasting analysis, no definitive hyperlink between magnesium and sleep could possibly be drawn.
Magnesium’s largest starring position within the well being world has lengthy been for the therapy of migraines; sure formulation and strengths are made out there through prescription to those that undergo from the assaults. Present theories about how magnesium works to alleviate these signs primarily recommend that magnesium offers the mind a form of increase to renew regular perform, together with moderating the discharge of chemical alerts and drawing therapeutic elements into the realm. Whereas there’s no agency proof that any of those processes would additionally apply to the sleep-addled thoughts, Tarleton says that it’s believable.
use magnesium safely
If you wish to strive magnesium for sleep, rest, or every other motive, it’s vital to be sure you really understand how a lot you’re taking. And since dietary supplements aren’t regulated in the identical method medicines are, magnesium tablets might produce other substances blended in. “There are only a few magnesium dietary supplements which have been examined and verified by way of realizing precisely what’s in them,” says Tarleton. She recommends at all times checking the bottle’s label to verify the producers have listed the quantity of elemental magnesium (basically, the amount of simply the mineral itself) current within the drugs. A well being care skilled is finest suited to level you towards an excellent beginning dosage—and weigh in on whether or not it’s best to take magnesium in any respect, since dietary supplements are usually not risk-free. “The large unwanted effects of an excessive amount of magnesium are diarrhea, upset abdomen, and finally nausea and throwing up,” says Tarleton. “These are form of the primary indicators” that you could be be taking an excessive amount of.
Like every sleep assist, it’s additionally finest to make use of magnesium dietary supplements sparingly, since their results can weaken over time, Tarleton says. And earlier than you begin popping dietary supplements, think about revamping your sleep hygiene and habits. “It’s a lot simpler to take a complement than to attempt to actually take a tough take a look at what the explanations are that you simply’re not sleeping nicely to start with.”
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