Magnesium glycinate is suddenly everywhere as a sleep aid — what does the evidence actually say?
My feed is full of magnesium glycinate for sleep. The pitch: the glycinate form absorbs better than magnesium oxide and is easier on the stomach. But I have seen this movie before with melatonin and ashwagandha. I sleep about six and a half hours, have no known magnesium deficiency, and I would rather see trial data than testimonials. Are there actual randomized trials showing it improves sleep in adults who are not deficient? And if it works, what dose ranges do the trials use compared to what the bottles sell?
1 answer
- Try the free sleep basics before buying the bottle.
Not a doctor, but before spending twenty dollars on a bottle I would check the boring basics first: same wake time every day, cool dark room, screens off an hour before bed. Those have the biggest effect sizes in actual sleep research and they are free. My rule with any supplement hype: if it only shows up in testimonials and never in a trial table, the bottle stays on the shelf. And if you do try it, get a single-ingredient bottle with a listed elemental magnesium dose — not a "sleep blend" with twelve things in it.