Americans don't get enough sleep. Can magnesium supplements help?

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Magnesium is important for many processes in the body, including regulating muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels and making protein and bone. / Getty Images

Dr. Chester Wu is a psychiatrist and sleep specialist in Houston. Lately, he says he’s had more patients ask him, ‘Hey doc,’ should I take magnesium supplements to help me sleep?

“It’s definitely been something that I feel like I have been talking about more with patients in the last maybe year or two,” Wu says.

Some of that interest is fueled by social media. Take, for example, the sleepy girl mocktail that went viral on TikTok. It’s a mixture of magnesium powder, tart cherry juice and a prebiotic soda that you drink about a half hour before bed.

And while a mocktail before bed might sound like a bad idea, sleep specialist Dr. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, says it might be worth trying.

“If you asked me, ‘Can I try the sleepy girl mocktail?’ I would say, ‘Sure. It probably won't hurt you, but start with a low dose of the magnesium’” like a half dose or less, she says.

But if you are looking for rigorous science proving it works, you won't find it.

Abbasi-Feinberg, who is the director of sleep medicine at Millennium Physician Group in Fort Myers, Fla., and every other sleep specialist I spoke with stressed there’s really not much evidence at all on magnesium and sleep. There’s not even enough data for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to have a policy statement on it, says Abbasi-Feinberg, who is on the board of directors for the group.

What we do know is that magnesium is an essential mineral that plays a role in lots of bodily processes, including bone health, energy production, muscle relaxation and the nervous system.

And there are several theories about how magnesium might potentially help with sleep, says Tyish Hall Brown, director of behavioral sleep medicine at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

For one, Hall-Brown notes that magnesium is involved in making melatonin, which is a hormone that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycles. Magnesium also helps relax your muscles from cramping. And she says there’s an idea that it could help reduce anxiety, so that when someone is trying to fall asleep, “they may not be as anxious, perhaps, about what happened the day before, what's about to happen. And it may promote sleep a little bit better.”

But again, that’s just an unproven theory.

Wu says people with some medical conditions, such as kidney disease, have to be careful with magnesium, so it’s important to talk to your doctor before trying it. But in general, he says, as long as you don’t take too much — because that can cause stomach upset — magnesium won’t hurt, and it might help. He says anecdotally, he’s worked with many patients who reported a positive response to magnesium.

“Whether it's the placebo [effect] or actually, like just simply benefiting from the magnesium — I try not to worry too much about that, because at the end of the day, they're feeling better,” Wu says.

He notes that many Americans don’t get enough magnesium in their diet, so a little extra isn’t bad. Although he’d prefer people get it through their food — leafy greens like spinach and kale, seeds, nuts, salmon, beans, whole grains and yogurt are all good sources of magnesium.

Some advice on social media also suggests giving magnesium to kids. But if there’s little empirical evidence when it comes to adults, there’s basically none when it comes to using the supplement as a sleep aid in people under 18, says Dr. Cora Collette Breuner, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.

Breuner says she uses magnesium in some adolescent patients — not as a sleep aid, but to treat migraines and tension headaches. “I don't know how this completely works, but they respond to magnesium,” says Breuner, who is the lead author of a forthcoming policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the safety of supplements.

Dr. Beth Malow, a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University whose research focuses on sleep issues in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, notes that there is a bit of clinical data suggesting magnesium can help kids with ADHD and autism — not as a sleep aid but in general. Sleep difficulties are common in children with autism and ADHD, and she usually starts by recommending melatonin, which is much better studied in this population of kids. But if that’s not working, “I'm totally open to them trying magnesium,” Malow says.

Breuner notes that dosing for magnesium is based on age and weight, and she starts her pediatric patients on doses far lower than what the bottle recommends. She says parents should talk to their pediatrician if they’re interested, and make sure to buy supplements from a reputable source that’s been vetted by a third party, such as the U.S. Pharmacopeia.

But before reaching for any sleep aid, all the doctors I spoke to said it’s important to focus on sleep hygiene first. That means avoiding big meals before bedtime, sleeping in a dark, quiet room, keeping to a regular sleep schedule, and of course, staying off screens before you hit the hay.

This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh