Magnesium. I Think It's Causing Insomnia

[RayPeatFan777]

I'm so tired.

Usually i sleep for 10 hours no problem.
10 days ago I started using magnesium baths + magnesium oil in large amounts, hoping it would calm my anxiety. Unfortunately I felt no positive effects from the transdermal so tried dietary supplements.

initially tried natural calm - diarrhoea

4 days ago I tried chelated magnesium glycinate from Drs best. I took 8-10 tablets spread out throughout the day and finished my day off with a magnesium footbath.

4 nights later I am begging for my body to let me sleep!
I haven't even taken mag since 4 days ago but I've had 4 nights of horrific 'sleep'

It's restless, I'm wired throughout the small amount of hours i manage to get.

I've tried the usual tricks with salt n sugar, it's not that. I usually sleep like a baby eating the same things as i am right now.

It all points to magnesium but how do I reverse this? I'm laid in bed right now at 4am begging for some sleep.

 

[Orion]

Simple, stop taking magnesium, you may not be deficient. Large amounts will also disturb digestive tract (increase serotonin/endotoxin reactions).

Anxiety could be related to blood sugar stability, low blood sugar usually means increased cortisol/adrenaline to compensate.

 

[tara]

Simple, stop taking magnesium, you may not be deficient.

And after you've had a break, if you decide to try it again, try a smaller amount.

 

[raypeatclips]

I got some issues that coincided with taking a decent amount of mangesium topically (Perhaps other things at play, hard to say) I received a blood test back and realised I wasn't magnesium deficient, despite many people on the internet talking about how widespread magnesium deficiency is, I was convinced I had it. I think overdoing magnesium did have some negative effects on me which have gone after stopping it.

 

[Mito]

.

 

[Mito]

It all points to magnesium but how do I reverse this? I'm laid in bed right now at 4am begging for some sleep.

What was your reason for deciding to supplement magnesium?

 

[Birdie]

Ray has mentioned problems with supplemental magnesium and sleep due to colon irritation.

 

[Frankdee20]

I remember in the beginning of Magnesium supplementation I'd get disturbed sleep. No longer bothers me. You should scale back and develop tolerance. Buy a pure form like chloride liquid or powder. Eating a few bananas, a cup of black beans, spinach, some chocolate will bring it up to about 320 mgs.

 

[Mr. Sick]

I can confirm that Magnesium can induce insomnia. It happens to me with only 200mg magnesium-citrate a day. After approx. 3 days, I start to wake up at 2-3 am and cannot go back to sleep. If I continue the use, it will get worse and worse until I so wired, that I cannot go to sleep at all.
We are not alone as you can tell from this thread
https://www.paleohacks.com/magnesium/why-does-magnesium-sometimes-negatively-impact-sleep-4525

I want to strongly discourage the inviting notions that people who are reacting that way are "just not deficient". That's outragous silly. Nobody who is healthy gets insomnia from taking 200 to 500 mg or even more Mg during the day. And with todays diet, without supplementation nobody is in the high end of the ref range anyway.

It is obvious, that something is wrong with our body/biochemistry.

It's a shame, because I got some benefits regarding mood and relaxation from Mg. But all goes to ***t due to insomnia. Unfortunately, to this day, I didn't found an answer to the problem.

Ray has mentioned problems with supplemental magnesium and sleep due to colon irritation.

could you elaborate on this?

I remember in the beginning of Magnesium supplementation I'd get disturbed sleep. No longer bothers me. You should scale back and develop tolerance. Buy a pure form like chloride liquid or powder. Eating a few bananas, a cup of black beans, spinach, some chocolate will bring it up to about 320 mgs.

Did you make any changes during the time, you got tolerant to Mg??

 

[Frankdee20]

I can confirm that Magnesium can induce insomnia. It happens to me with only 200mg magnesium-citrate a day. After approx. 3 days, I start to wake up at 2-3 am and cannot go back to sleep. If I continue the use, it will get worse and worse until I so wired, that I cannot go to sleep at all.
We are not alone as you can tell from this thread
https://www.paleohacks.com/magnesium/why-does-magnesium-sometimes-negatively-impact-sleep-4525

I want to strongly discourage the inviting notions that people who are reacting that way are "just not deficient". That's outragous silly. Nobody who is healthy gets insomnia from taking 200 to 500 mg or even more Mg during the day. And with todays diet, without supplementation nobody is in the high end of the ref range anyway.

It is obvious, that something is wrong with our body/biochemistry.

It's a shame, because I got some benefits regarding mood and relaxation from Mg. But all goes to ***t due to insomnia. Unfortunately, to this day, I didn't found an answer to the problem.



could you elaborate on this?



Did you make any changes during the time, you got tolerant to Mg??

Only changes I'd make were scaling back the dose, or trying it on the AM. Eventually, I developed a tolerance, I can easily take 800mg now. I get a lot of Calcium from food, and D3, K2, but maybe boosting Calcium helps.

 

[Broken man]

First, if you are hypothyroid, always take magnesium with thyroid or thyroid surrogate to push it more to the cells. Second, magnesium is laxative due to poor oral absorption so topical is better and use it with taurine.

Taurine helps regulate the electrolytes in a way that even a moderate magnesium deficiency can be compensated for by the other alkaline minerals.

 

[RobertJM]

The only forms of magnesium that I have found sedative are:

a) magnesium chloride
b) magnesium bicarbonate

I have come across reports of the citrate causing insomnia before. I wouldn't bother with it.

 

[Mito]

I can confirm that Magnesium can induce insomnia. It happens to me with only 200mg magnesium-citrate a day.

Which other forms of magnesium have you tried besides citrate?

 

[Mr. Sick]

Only changes I'd make were scaling back the dose, or trying it on the AM. Eventually, I developed a tolerance, I can easily take 800mg now. I get a lot of Calcium from food, and D3, K2, but maybe boosting Calcium helps.

I am really envious. None of this is working for me unfortantely.

First, if you are hypothyroid, always take magnesium with thyroid or thyroid surrogate to push it more to the cells. Second, magnesium is laxative due to poor oral absorption so topical is better and use it with taurine.

taurine is fracturing at least my sleep as well.

The only forms of magnesium that I have found sedative are:

a) magnesium chloride
b) magnesium bicarbonate

I have come across reports of the citrate causing insomnia before. I wouldn't bother with it.

Did you get insomnia from citrate?

Which other forms of magnesium have you tried besides citrate?

I tried Mg chloride as well, with the same outcome. I have yet to retry it but it seems that even 1/3 cup of sunflower seeds a day, which are very rich in Mg, is giving me this kind of insomnia after a few days.
It's really wicked.

I don't fancy spendung money on Mg glycinate since I have pure glycinate at my place .... and it gives me insomnia as well.
Totally unrelated but even zinc or ashvagandha give me insomnia. There are only few supps which are not interfering with my sleep and even fewer who improve it instead.

Makes me wonder @ OP: Do you get insomnia from other supps as well?

 

[evo21]

Maybe it has something to do with this?

Topical/Transdermal Magnesium Detoxifies Toxic Metals And Improves Mag/cal Balance

The Mg might be causing heavy metals to be released from storage. At night metabolism slows down which might lead to a build up of toxic metals in the blood if they haven't been excreted yet.

 

[Mr. Sick]

I thought about that as well. But unfortunately one cannot really check if this is the case.
I once had a multi mineral analysis for a lot of toxic metals. At the time I felt really bad and thought maybe it's something like this. But all the metals were in range. Mercury was almost above the ref range but still in range.

 

[RobertJM]

Give magnesium bicarbonate a go.

Milk of magnesia and carbonated water. No other forms of magnesium come close to how sedative it is. And it's beyond easy to make. Buy MOM from your pharmacy (or order from internet). Buy carbonated water from store. And then follow recipe (which is put MOM into carbonated water, shake for a while and then leave in fridge). Drink when ready. It knocks me out cold each time. And it provides a whopping dose of easily assimilated magnesium.

Taurine also ruins my sleep. It's a complicated AA, though. It interacts with bile and cholesterol. If it's affecting your sleep it may be due to detox reactions. I would leave it. At the very least (when taking anything metabolically stimulating), make sure you are 'sugared up' (especially before bed).

Seriously I wouldn't bother with the citrate. I've seen this reported from other forums in previous years (so this isn't an odd random reaction). If it has that effect on you, it's not worth persuing with it.

Citrate has no effect on me. It doesn't even produce laxative effects from three tea spoons of the powder (which is about 1200mg of magnesium). I didn't go higher because I don't know what is actually in the powder (without a chemical analysis). I only purchased it for sporadic use (to use instead of Epsom salts during liver flushes). But it's useless (to me, anyway. Doesn't affect my sleep in any positive/negative way). The brand is 'NOW foods magnesium citrate powder'.

 

[Mr. Sick]

sounds interesting. But it seems not to be easy to purchase this in my country. What is Milk of magnesia?

 

[mipp]

Hello RayPeatForum
I'm having similar experience with oral mag chloride which gave me insomnia after a few days. At first I thought it must be something else since magnesium is supposed to be sedating so two days ago I stopped all supps and just took mag but it only got worse. Last night was really bad I felt very anxious and got maybe two hours of sleep. Tried eating more sugar and then salt. I think salt helped a little. Still feeling restless like a caffeine overdose. Really wasnt exepecting this from magnesium. Or maybe it's the chloride, Id taken magnesium lactate before and can't remember having problems with it

 

[Mr. Sick]

Yup that "wired" feeling, like being overdosed with coffee. The feeling that the "wakefulness-lamp" in your brain is shining so bright and you just cannot turn that "light" off, which feels quite strange.
You should immediatley quit Mg and get a few days rest first. I can confirm that salt and potassium have at least some influence on this inability to switch off and slide into sleep. But I can't say it's a cure for the problem.
At least one night around 3 am I was able to sleep half an hour after drinking a supp with lots of potassium citrate.

Something's serious wrong with us.

Magnesium lactate ... again something I don't have here and never heard of. Do you have any left? Would you try it again to see if you can still tolerate the lactate?