Everyone on TikTok is bleary-eyed and anxious, it typically appears. The generations that dominate the app—Gen Z and Millennials—are additionally these most beleaguered by nervousness, which is carefully 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 newest complement touted to heal each poor sleep and nervousness: magnesium glycinate, considered one of practically 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 often do, eases insomnia, and lets them unwind on the finish of the day. One nurse practitioner on the app known 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 ingredient that you have already got in your physique, because of meals like nuts, seeds, beans, and sure vegetable and dairy objects. It really works throughout the cells of a number of physique programs to maintain muscle mass, nerves, and different components functioning correctly. Somebody making an attempt to promote you dietary supplements may inform you 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 forestall any actual noticeable results, says Emily Tarleton, a registered dietitian and researcher at Northern Vermont College. Vital magnesium deficiencies are a lot much less widespread and infrequently include signs like fatigue, weak spot, and nausea. Some researchers, nevertheless, have additionally advised that there may very well be connections between even delicate magnesium deficiency and sleep issues.
In nature, magnesium is all the time discovered together with different parts, that means that there are lots of methods to ship it into the physique. Magnesium merchandise and dietary supplements mirror this variety of type. You should purchase capsules (like magnesium citrate), beverage components (like magnesium lactate), or salts, which embrace magnesium sulfate (aka Epsom salt) and are designed to ship small quantities of the mineral by means of the pores and skin. Magnesium glycinate is standard as a result of it’s among the many capsule types which are essentially the most bioavailable, that 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 commonplace for remedy research. In her 2017 research, 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 yr, a evaluation of 18 small research discovered that individuals who took varied magnesium dietary supplements reported enhancements in signs of hysteria. In Tarleton’s research, “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 help, notably within the extra bioavailable types like magnesium glycinate and magnesium chloride. “Magnesium performs an enormous function in muscle contraction,” she says. “Athletes will typically use it for muscle cramping. So our concept is that the muscle rest facet impact might 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 individuals with migraines, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and some different well being circumstances, sleep enhancements have typically been reported however are not often formally tracked.
Just a few research have checked out magnesium dietary supplements completely as an insomnia therapy, however they’ve all been too small and focused to particular populations to attract conclusions from. One such research in 2012 included solely aged contributors and had a pattern dimension of solely 46 individuals. One other newer research 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 evaluation 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 may very well be drawn.
Magnesium’s largest starring function within the well being world has lengthy been for the therapy of migraines; sure formulation and strengths are made accessible by way of prescription to those that endure from the assaults. Present theories about how magnesium works to alleviate these signs primarily recommend that magnesium offers the mind a type of increase to renew regular operate, together with moderating the discharge of chemical alerts and drawing therapeutic components into the world. 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.
Easy methods to use magnesium safely
If you wish to strive magnesium for sleep, rest, or every other cause, it’s necessary to ensure you truly know the way a lot you’re taking. And since dietary supplements aren’t regulated in the identical manner medicines are, magnesium tablets might produce other components combined in. “There are only a few magnesium dietary supplements which were examined and verified when it comes to realizing precisely what’s in them,” says Tarleton. She recommends all the time checking the bottle’s label to ensure the producers have listed the quantity of elemental magnesium (basically, the quantity of simply the mineral itself) current within the capsules. A well being care skilled is finest suited to level you towards an excellent beginning dosage—and weigh in on whether or not you need 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 ultimately nausea and throwing up,” says Tarleton. “These are type of the primary indicators” that you could be be taking an excessive amount of.
Like several sleep help, 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 properly to start with.”
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