The majority of people know that you need to get at least seven hours of sleep each night. They know that good quality and consistent sleep improves their health and overall well-being. Sometimes, however, it’s a little easier said than done. With busy lives, work commitments, and constant connectivity, it can be tough to regularly get quality sleep.
How Magnesium Can Help You Sleep and Improve Your Mood
Related: Why Magnesium Is Essential For Enhanced Fitness, Better Sleep, Improved Mood and More
One healthy natural solution for sleep is to incorporate more magnesium into your routine. The mineral magnesium possesses a host of health benefits that can help you to fall asleep more quickly and have a deeper sleep. It also helps support your mood and can aid in lowering stress and anxiety. This article explores how magnesium could be the missing link for better sleep and mood.
Five Reasons You Need Magnesium for Better Sleep and Mood:
Magnesium is an essential mineral. Your body doesn’t produce magnesium which means you need to obtain the mineral through your diet. You have to get it through outside sources from foods like:
- Dark leafy greens
- Avocadoes
- Seeds and nuts
- Legumes
- Squash
- Broccoli
- Dark Chocolate
- Okra
- Bananas
- Quinoa
Another way to boost your intake is with magnesium supplements. They are a quick and effective way to increase your magnesium. Sunwarrior’s magnesium liquid supplement contains an ionic magnesium complex sourced from a Non-GMO inland seabed.
Magnesium is essential for human health as it’s involved in over 600 enzymatic reactions in the body. The mineral isn’t just important for sleep but contributes to so many functions in the body like bone, muscle, and brain health.
Magnesium plays a role in a variety of processes in the body like:
- Help regulate and control your stress-response system
- Maintain muscle and nerve function
- Encourage a healthy immune system
- Support restorative deep sleep
With such a broad and complex role in the body, it’s no surprise that magnesium offers so many amazing benefits. To understand the role magnesium plays in sleep and mood, it’s a good idea to understand how magnesium deficiency affects the body and brain.
How Magnesium Deficiency Affects Your Sleep
You probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your magnesium intake, but magnesium is essential to your health and surprisingly many people don’t get enough of it. Magnesium is actually one of the top nutrients lacking in the standard American diet. With up to 50% of the US population believed to be deficient in magnesium, the need for it is generally underestimated and sometimes ignored. That equates to millions of people not getting enough magnesium on a daily basis.
Related: The Benefits of Magnesium; Why 80% of Americans Are Deficient
Long-term magnesium deficiency can result in adverse effects on bone density, nerve, muscle, and brain function. If you don’t have enough magnesium in your body, it can actually disrupt your sleep.
Insomnia is a symptom of magnesium deficiency. A magneisum deficiency not only affects how your body relaxes for sleep, but it can hinder you from getting into a deep sleep and cause you to wake up throughout the night. The end result is a feeling of grogginess, lack of concentration, and general frustration.
If you think you’re low on magnesium, here are some signs and symptoms to look for:
- Muscle cramps and twitches
- Fatigue
- Constipation
- Osteoporosis
- Headaches & Migraines
- Anxiety & Panic Attacks
- High blood pressure
- Irregular heartbeat
- Restless sleep
- Insomnia
Interestingly, research shows that you need magnesium to activate vitamin D. Vitamin D helps to regulate calcium and is crucial for growing and maintaining strong bones. Magnesium plays a major role in both vitamin D activation and function. Considering how important vitamin D is for your immune system and increasing absorption of calcium, it’s vital that you get enough magnesium to support your overall well-being and health.
5 Reasons You Need Magnesium for Better Mood and Sleep
1. Help Your Brain and Body to Relax
As the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, magnesium is essential for over 300 processes in the body. One way magnesium helps improve sleep and mood is by preparing your body and mind for relaxation. Magnesium supports the relaxation journey by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. The main job of the parasympathetic nervous system is to help you get relaxed and feel calm.
Magnesium helps relax the body in two ways: it regulates neurotransmitters that send signals to and from the nervous system and the brain and regulates your melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps navigate your sleep-wake cycle. By quieting the nervous system, magnesium helps prepare the body and mind for sleep.
Want more tips for getting to sleep naturally? Watch this video from Jason Wrobel to get more ideas for a better sleep.
2. Maintain Healthy Levels of GABA
Another way that magnesium facilitates better sleep is by maintaining healthy levels of GABA. GABA stands for gamma-aminobutyric acid; it’s a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep. One of the reasons magnesium plays such a significant role in deeper, more sound sleep is due to how the mineral impacts GABA levels.
Magnesium has been shown to regulate GABA receptors in the brain. By stimulating GABA receptors in the brain, it can help to maintain healthy levels of GABA and allow you to switch off. Magnesium increases GABA, which encourages relaxation. Relaxation is key to preparing your body and mind for sleep.
Research shows that magnesium can improve sleep quality, particularly in people with poor sleep. The mineral not only helps you get to sleep but also achieves a deeper, more restorative sleep. One study in older adults found that magnesium supplements improved quality of sleep. Researchers found that those who supplemented magnesium also experienced higher levels of melatonin and renin. These are two hormones that help to regulate sleep.
3. Improve Restless Leg Syndrome
Restless leg syndrome is a disorder of the nervous system. As the name suggests, it causes an urge to move your legs. This urge to move your legs is often accompanied by pain or other uncomfortable feelings. Due to the overwhelming feeling to move your legs, restless leg syndrome can often disrupt your sleep.
Early research suggests that magnesium deficiency may cause some cases of restless leg syndrome. As magnesium is thought to relax muscles and nerves in the body, it may help to relieve restless leg syndrome.
One study found that magnesium helped improve insomnia in people with restless leg syndrome. The mineral may be an effective alternative to conventional medicine as a way to improve the nerve disorder, and in turn, supporting good quality sleep.
4. May Help Lower Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
Magnesium not only supports better sleep but also helps to improve mood. Magnesium can affect the nervous system that relaxes the body. It may benefit things like stress, anxiety, and depression. Anxiety, stress, and depression can all impact your sleep, making it difficult to achieve a peaceful night’s rest.
Magnesium may help to treat anxiety and lower stress. By activating your parasympathetic nervous system, magnesium encourages your body to rest and recharge. When you’re constantly stressed and on high alert, your sympathetic nervous system tends to be active for longer periods. Over time, this can make you feel run down.
Magnesium can help to stabilize your mood and lower stress by allowing your body to prepare for relaxation and unwind. Studies have shown that supplementing magnesium can help relieve symptoms in both mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression as well as have a stabilizing effect on mood.
Related :How Not Getting Enough Sleep Can Ruin Your DNA, Microbiome, and Shorten Your Life
The essential mineral doesn’t just help you get to sleep and stay asleep, it has a whole host of benefits such as:
- Boost exercise performance
- Lower blood pressure
- May prevent migraines
- Improve PMS symptoms
5. Not Having Enough Magnesium Affects Your Sleep
Insomnia and restless sleep can be a sign of a magnesium deficiency. That is why it is so important to actively eat magnesium-rich foods or take a magnesium supplement daily to ensure you’re hitting your required amount.The RDA for magnesium varies according to your age and gender.
RDA for Children ages 1-3 is 80 mg, 4-8 yrs is 130 mg.
Males ages 9-13 is 240 mg, 14-18 yrs is 410 mg, 19-30 yrs is 400 mg, 31-70 yrs is 420 mg.
Females ages 9-13 RDA is 240 mg, 14-18 yrs is 360 mg, 19-30 yrs is 310 mg, 31-70 yrs is 320 mg. During pregnancy, the RDA is 360 mg and during lactation it is 320 mg.
Sleep is a very complex process made up of neurotransmitters, chemicals, and hormones. These things all work together to activate certain parts of your brain to promote sleep. Magnesium helps to regulate a lot of processes including hormones and neurotransmitters. Often magnesium supplements are a popular choice for a sleep aid. Multiple studies have demonstrated that magnesium can help you to fall asleep more quickly and deeply, encouraging a more replenishing night’s sleep.
Magnesium is often overlooked as a beneficial mineral, but it’s actually something that many people could benefit from. The mineral has become a popular supplement in the wellness world over the past few years and for good reason. If you’re looking to have a better sleep regimine or you are finding it hard to nod off, magnesium could be just what you need. Try to consciously increase your intake of magnesium-rich foods and/or opt for a magnesium supplement. As more and more people turn to magnesium to improve sleep and mood, it can support your brain, body, and overall well-being.
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