Will magnesium cure insomnia? Or is it more influencer babble?
Celebrities may be selling magnesium supplements as part of their ‘lifestyle’ range, but does it really live up to the hype as a cure for troubled sleep?
At a recent book club meeting in San Francisco, participants went around the room saying what was new in their lives before launching into their literary discussion. One had just joined a corporate board. Another had just published a new article. When it was Kathleen Janus’s turn, she answered, “Magnesium!” “Everyone was like, ‘There goes Kathleen again with her latest sleep hack,” she said. But a few days later, “They all emailed to ask me about it.”
After 20 years of waking up at least once every night, Janus, an author and Stanford lecturer on social entrepreneurship, was in search of a sleep cure, and she wasn’t alone. “Every woman I know is complaining about her sleep,” she said. “We’re exhausted … and our mind is racing in the middle of the night.” She had tried strategies such as going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day, swearing off alcohol and walking outside first thing in the morning, but nothing made much of a difference.
Then her nutritionist suggested that she check her magnesium levels. It turned out she was deficient in the mineral, so she started doing a nightly magnesium soak, and after 11 days she says she was sleeping for an uninterrupted nine hours.
Since 2020 manufacturers such as Nature Made and Garden of Life have expanded their offerings from pills to gummies and powders, and just in the past two years, vitamin retailer GNC has seen sales of magnesium supplements grow over 70 per cent. Magnesium has its own influencers and advocates, such as Kristen Bowen and Carolyn Dean, who have spent their careers espousing the magic of the mineral. And there are celebrity enthusiasts too, including actors Naomi Watts and actor Gwyneth Paltrow, who sell magnesium-related products through their lifestyle brands.
Sleep experts say that today’s magnesium-mania is in part thanks to TikTok users posting viral videos with recipes and health claims. One favourite is the Sleepy Girl Mocktail, a mix of magnesium powder, seltzer and tart cherry juice. Bowen, founder of a Utah-based company that sells transdermal magnesium sprays, lotions, soaks and lip balms, among other products, said that demand increased dramatically when magnesium started exploding on TikTok two years ago, and she had to import much more of the mineral from her source in the Netherlands.
“Right now is an incredibly heightened time of anxiety,” said Dr Michael Breus, a sleep specialist and author. “People are anxious, and they go to the drugstore and say, ‘I know you can’t give me Xanax, but what else do you have?’ And the pharmacist says, ‘Try that magnesium-based ‘Calm’ powder over there’.”
Dr Alcibiades Rodriguez, medical director of NYU Langone’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Centre-Sleep Centre, has been hearing more patients ask about magnesium recently. “People are looking for natural ways to be healthy without taking medication,” said Dr Rodriguez. He has found that as more people track their health data on wearable devices, it has led to an impulse to try to optimise wellbeing by taking supplements.
Is magnesium worth all the hype? “Yes and no,” he said. “Some survey studies have shown that people who take magnesium tend to sleep better than people who don’t, but there hasn’t been anything conclusive.” He abides by the Sleep Foundation’s stance. “It is potentially helpful for some people, and it doesn’t hurt, so it’s worth a try,” he said.
Registered dietitian Stephanie Middleberg has seen an uptick in requests for the mineral from her pregnant patients. Author of the “The Big Book of Pregnancy Nutrition”, she has long recommended magnesium, which she says can help such common pregnancy ailments as constipation and leg cramps. Even without a requisite condition, some doctors suggest it these days for everything from low energy to insomnia. “Very few people don’t benefit from a little bit of magnesium supplementation,” said Dr Jessica Weiser-McCarthy, an internist and integrative medicine doctor in Manhattan.
Dr Amanda Kahn, a New York internist who specialises in longevity, said new patients often come to her to find out which formula of magnesium to take for which ailment. Carolyn Alemi, a nurse practitioner, went to Kahn for guidance. As a working mother of three young children, she found herself restless during the night and tired during the day. “I wanted to be able to conk out at night,” she said. Kahn suggested magnesium glycinate or magnesium L-threonate. Alemi says she felt the effects almost immediately. “I definitely get more deep sleep when I take it,” she said.
Though most health experts say taking magnesium won’t hurt you, it depends on where you get it and how much you take, said Dr Pieter Cohen, a professor at Harvard Medical School and leader of Cambridge Health Alliance’s Supplement Research Program. The lack of regulation around supplements, he said, often results in vastly different levels of both listed and unlisted ingredients.
Though magnesium can be essential for treating certain health problems, Dr Cohen said, taking it for subtle complaints such as low energy or occasional difficulty falling back to sleep is unlikely to have an effect. In his practice as a primary care doctor, he said he has only one patient a year who has what he considers a clinical magnesium deficiency.
“Generally, when we’re having some kind of problem where you’re a little off kilter, chances are you were going to feel better in a few days anyway,” Cohen said. “So, if you happened to take something during those few days, it’s not exactly the placebo effect, it’s just the amazing remarkable body we have that with time just happens to get better.”
Alexandra Wolfe is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and author of “Valley of the Gods.”
The Wall Street Journal
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