Sleep is an essential component for a healthy life. When we sleep, we allow our bodies to repair from the day and rebuild for the next. Many important processes happen during sleep, such as muscle repair, protein synthesis, tissue growth, and hormone release.
But many people struggle with getting a good night’s rest due to many factors, including stress, incompatible work schedules, and insomnia.
Thankfully, there’s a natural remedy that’s capable of helping the body sleep and sleep better — magnesium.
What is Magnesium?
Magnesium is an essential nutrient that plays a crucial role for over 300 physiologic processes in our bodies. Magnesium is often referred to as the “Master Mineral” because of the core function it plays for the health of the human body.
Because magnesium is a widespread, critical element that is vital to our bodies, low magnesium levels can throw many of the body’s functions off-course.
What Does Magnesium Do?
Magnesium levels regulate the many aspects of the human body, providing necessary elements for healthy human function. Some examples include:
- Protecting metabolic health
- Stabilizing mood
- Keeping stress in check
- Improving heart and bone health
- Promoting better sleep
- Regulating blood sugar levels
Maintaining proper magnesium levels in our bodies can benefit our sleep immensely, as well as our overall mental and physical well being.
How Does Magnesium Benefit Sleep?
Research has found that having a lack of magnesium negatively impacts sleep. Magnesium regulates neurotransmitters such as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is the receptor responsible for promoting relaxation and quieting nerve activity in our bodies. Since magnesium activates GABA pathways, this means that magnesium is directly correlated to sleep and the quality of sleep we experience.
This also means that having a healthy amount of magnesium in our bodies is essential towards the production of GABA, ultimately resulting in relaxation and better quality of sleep.
Regulates our Circadian Cycle
Magnesium also aids with regulating our circadian cycle, which is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle in your body. Research has found that having a healthy level of magnesium helps with our cellular timekeeping and allows us to manage our energy balance, providing higher energy levels in the day while tapering off as night comes, allowing us to fall asleep easier and more consistently.
Magnesium Can Help Manage Insomnia and Stress
In a study of 50 patients with insomnia, it was found that taking magnesium daily for eight weeks improved their quality of sleep and troubles with insomnia. The patients experienced many benefits, such as:
- Falling asleep faster
- Sleeping for longer periods of time
- Reducing the amount of times woken up in the middle of the night
- Experiencing less cortisol production in their body, the “stress hormone”
Magnesium also plays a key role in regulating the body’s stress-response system. Magnesium deficiency has been correlated with heightened stress, anxiety, and depression — more aspects that may contribute towards poor quality of sleep.
Promotes Deeper Sleep
Through an EEG study, it was found that magnesium increased our bodies’ ability to have slow-wave sleep — the deepest phase of non-rapid eye movement that is crucial for memory consolidation and muscle repair. Having impaired memory consolidation has been found in individuals who have primary insomnia and a direct correlation has been found for patients with insomnia who also experience less slow-wave sleep in their nights.
This means that having a healthy amount of magnesium in our bodies allows us to sleep deeper, contributes towards our ability for retaining memory, and reduces the potential for experiencing insomnia.
How Can We Incorporate Magnesium In Our Diet?
Our bodies cannot produce magnesium on its own, so we have to incorporate this essential macro-mineral through our diet. A simple way to incorporate more magnesium in our bodies is through our Deep Ocean Magnesium Mineral Water Drops. Drawn from an ancient layer of pristine and mineral-rich deep ocean water that sits 2,200 feet below the surface of the Kona Sea, our magnesium water drops are an easy way to include more magnesium in your daily diet. Our water drops also have one of the highest absorption rates for magnesium because magnesium that is water soluble is more completely absorbed by our bodies than less soluble forms. With our Pure Hawaii Mineral Drops, you can mineral-enhance your drinking water with magnesium, chloride, and potassium while also making your own great-tasting mineral water.
In order to fall asleep and stay asleep, your body and brain need to relax. By helping to quiet the nervous system, magnesium can help prepare your body and mind for sound sleep. Studies have shown magnesium to improve the quality and duration of sleep, while also lowering the amount of stress in our bodies. Although magnesium may improve our sleep, it’s still vital to include other healthy sleeping habits in our lifestyles, such as:
- Daily exercise
- Healthy diet with magnesium rich foods like leafy greens, whole grains, and nuts
- Lowering the amount of caffeine intake
- Reducing the amount of blue light
- Setting a consistent sleep schedule
