Whether they’re hyping magnesium-based merchandise like the “sleepy girl mocktail” or pink lemonade-like drink mixes, wellness influencers are including to the longtime buzz round taking the mineral for sleep advantages.
But do these dietary supplements work?
“Magnesium is actually an essential mineral that is needed for more than 300 processes in the body,” stated Samantha Cassetty, a registered dietitian in New York City. “We need to get it from our diet, or supplements if we can’t get enough through our diet.”
Magnesium helps sleep by helping produce the sleep hormone melatonin, whereas additionally regulating blood sugar and blood pressure, power manufacturing, digestion, and bone, muscle and mind well being.
The recommended daily intake of for adults ranges from 310 milligrams to 420 milligrams, which you may get from meals high in magnesium. Good choices embody darkish leafy greens, beans, nuts and seeds, entire grains corresponding to quinoa and shredded wheat, and fruits.
If you’re contemplating taking magnesium dietary supplements, they’re “always produced from natural sources, such as seawater or mined minerals,” stated John Travis, principal technical supervisor at NSF, previously the National Sanitation Foundation, through e-mail.
Though the mineral is essential for well being, there isn’t a lot educational analysis that definitively helps the declare that magnesium dietary supplements enhance sleep, stated Dr. Anita Shelgikar, director of the sleep drugs fellowship and medical professor of neurology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
And selecting the proper magnesium complement and following finest practices for dosing are important to keep away from any dangerous or inconvenient unintended effects.
Magnesium dietary supplements range in identify due to the completely different chemical compounds shaped when the mineral is mixed with different substances that have an effect on how they’re absorbed or tolerated, Travis and Shelgikar stated.
Popular types embody magnesium glycinate, magnesium citrate, magnesium malate, magnesium oxide and magnesium L-threonate.
Magnesium glycinate is the sort most used for sleep since glycine is an amino acid that’s concerned in the mechanisms of sleep and mild on the abdomen, in keeping with Cassetty.
Magnesium citrate usually catches folks off guard as a result of it could ship you operating to the rest room as an alternative of sending you off to sleep. The citrate pulls water into the colon and causes a laxative impact, abdomen cramps or fuel, Cassetty and Shelgikar stated. That’s why it’s typically used earlier than medical procedures like colonoscopies, stomach surgical procedures and different bowel exams.
Both magnesium citrate and magnesium glycinate are significantly better absorbed than magnesium oxide, Cassetty stated. But this way can nonetheless act as a laxative and is typically used to deal with magnesium deficiency given its excessive efficiency, Shelgikar stated.
Magnesium malate is much less studied by itself, Cassetty stated. But it’s much less prone to trigger digestive points and different uncomfortable unintended effects, and it’s marketed as useful for boosting power and relieving ache. “People anecdotally report online, and some small studies suggest, it may improve symptoms,” she added. “But it’s kind of hard to say.”
However, it’s believable that if ache is what’s inflicting your sleep points and taking magnesium malate helps relieve that ache, that’s how the complement may not directly enhance your sleep, Cassetty stated.
Magnesium L-threonate, usually branded as Magtein, was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists to pass the blood-brain barrier. This operate helps straight elevate magnesium ranges in the mind, which makes the mineral extra helpful all through the physique in contrast with different, much less absorbable types of magnesium.
Magnesium L-threonate is meant to primarily assist studying, reminiscence and total cognitive operate — advantages discovered in clinical studies funded by the firm behind Magtein. (Getting impartial analysis performed on a patented complement is tough.) This complement can also be regarded as probably helpful for sleep high quality and stress reduction, however much less so than different types.
Each of those types are bought on their very own or together with different varieties as magnesium compound dietary supplements.
Few educational research exist that present whether or not magnesium dietary supplements straight enhance sleep, Shelgikar stated.
A small examine of 134 adults, published in 2025, discovered the group that supplemented 250 milligrams of magnesium biglycinate each day had improved sleep, measured by considerably larger decreases in Insomnia Severity Index scores by week 4. This discovering was as compared with the management group that took a placebo.
Those outcomes echoed the findings of a 2021 evaluation of three research on 151 older adults with insomnia. The evaluation discovered contributors who took 320 to 729 milligrams of magnesium citrate or magnesium oxide for three to eight weeks fell asleep round 17 minutes quicker and slept about 16 minutes longer than the placebo group. (But the researchers stated a few of their outcomes had been weak and that the trials had been low high quality, so any potential suggestions based mostly on their findings aren’t as sturdy they’d like.)
Similar outcomes have been discovered for older adults taking magnesium biglycinate for insomnia, stated Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, an impartial tester and evaluator of well being and diet merchandise.
A 2021 examine of nearly 4,000 young adults discovered those that had the highest consumption of magnesium — about 196 milligrams per 1,000 energy each day — had been 23% extra prone to have higher sleep high quality than contributors who solely consumed round 105 milligrams each day. The high-intake group was additionally much less prone to get fewer than seven hours of sleep.
But a few of the findings mixed magnesium intakes from each meals and dietary supplements. The outcomes additionally considerably weakened in significance when the authors thought of contributors’ different well being components, corresponding to smoking standing, alcohol consumption and bodily exercise.
While there’s a lack of analysis on a direct relationship between magnesium and sleep, taking the dietary supplements has been proven to positively have an effect on different components that affect sleep well being — corresponding to ranges of the stress hormone cortisol, muscle rest and receptors that regulate nervous system activity.
If you’re not getting sufficient magnesium in your weight loss program — which is frequent — associated sleep disruption is believable, Cassetty stated. For many individuals, there may be typically little hurt in making an attempt magnesium dietary supplements, she added — “so it tends to be something that’s pretty easy to recommend, even though the research might not be robust.”
Regardless, at all times discuss together with your physician earlier than you begin taking a complement to keep away from the danger of harmfully interfering with a medical situation or any medicine you’re taking, Shelgikar stated.
“Just because something’s natural doesn’t mean that it’s safe,” Cassetty stated.
People with kidney, cardiovascular or gastrointestinal illness or low bone density ought to be particularly cautious, consultants stated. When kidneys can’t correctly filter and excrete vitamins, supplementing magnesium might result in unsafe blood ranges of the mineral, Shelgikar stated.
Consuming greater than 350 milligrams of supplemental magnesium can result in magnesium toxicity, which can cause symptoms together with low blood stress, vomiting, irregular heartbeat, issue respiratory and cardiac arrest.
If you’re having sleep points, take stock of your habits earlier than turning to “magnesium or any sleep solution as a magic bullet,” Cassetty stated. “It’s not going to override poor sleep-supporting habits.”
If enhancing your sleep health habits isn’t fixing something after a number of weeks, discuss to your physician or a sleep specialist to see whether or not you’ve an underlying drawback that could possibly be masked by dietary supplements.
The US Food and Drug Administration regulates over-the-counter supplements as meals. Accordingly, the company makes producers accountable for evaluating the security and labeling of their merchandise — for compliance with FDA necessities — earlier than they hit the market. This means there may be considerably much less standardization and high quality management of the ingredients in supplements, which implies the supply and dose of an energetic ingredient aren’t assured.
Accordingly, “the best way to ensure you are taking a safer, high-quality product is to look for certification by an independent, third-party organization like NSF,” Travis stated.
“Products certified to NSF’s standards for dietary supplements ensure that supplements are manufactured in a safe, hygienic facility that is compliant with FDA regulatory guidelines and, depending on the type of certification, that what’s on the label matches what’s in the bottle by evaluating the composition of the dietary supplement and ingredients.”
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention and Cooperman’s ConsumerLab.com present comparable sources — so trying for an “NSF,” “USP” or “CL” label on dietary supplements might assist you keep away from points round high quality.
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