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Magnesium Supplementation (Sleep & Anxiety)

Oral magnesium trials and reviews report heterogeneous but often favorable signals for insomnia severity, sleep-onset latency, and sleep efficiency—especially in older adults—alongside several positive anxiety studies; evidence quality is frequently low, and salt form is treated as dose variation under one protocol hub.

Scope

Magnesium supplementation means oral magnesium salts explored for sleep initiation/quality or mild anxiety (often overlapping endpoints in trials). Citrate, oxide, bisglycinate, lactate, and other salts differ in bioavailability and GI tolerability—treat those as within-family variation, not separate protocol slugs; read each linked source for the exact compound and dose.

Evidence themes (PubMed-first)

  • Placebo RCT in older insomnia: Abbasi et al. 2012 (PMID 23853635; abbasi-2012-magnesium-elderly-insomnia-rct) — 500 mg/day for 8 weeks improved ISI, sleep-onset latency, sleep efficiency, and sleep time versus placebo in 46 elderly participants (see row for biomarker caveats).
  • Older-adult insomnia meta-analysis: Mah & Pitre 2021 (PMID 33865376; mah-2021-magnesium-insomnia-older-adults-meta) pooled 3 RCTs, n = 151 — mean sleep-onset latency ~17.4 min shorter on magnesium (95% CI −27.3 to −7.4; p = 0.0006); total sleep time +16.1 min was not statistically significant; GRADE commonly low–very low with moderate–high RoB across included trials (erratum PMID 39702257 updates reporting only—core pooled SOL estimate remains the anchor).
  • Broader interventional lens: Rawji et al. 2024 (Cureus; PMID 38817505; rawji-2024-magnesium-anxiety-sleep-systematic-review-cureus) systematically surveyed 15 eligible trials (860 screened): 5/8 sleep arms reported improved sleep parameters; 5/7 anxiety arms improved—authors stress heterogeneity, small n, and multi-ingredient formulations in some studies.

Distinct protocols (do not merge)

  • Marine omega-3 (EPA/DHA) (marine-omega-3-supplementation) — lipid and cardiovascular trial literature.
  • NMN / NR NAD⁺ precursors (nmn-precursors, nmn-supplementation) — different supplement class and endpoints.
  • Circadian / bright-light levers (circadian-light, morning-light-therapy, evening-light-hygiene) — photic drivers, not oral magnesium physiology.

Safety & clinical hygiene

Excess oral magnesium commonly causes osmotic diarrhea; use caution with CKD, ileus risk, and drug interactions (e.g., some antibiotics, bisphosphonates)—clinician review beats self-escalating dose when insomnia is severe or OSA is undiagnosed.

Related registry

  • Sleep optimization (sleep-optimization) — sleep scheduling, duration, and environment; magnesium evidence is an adjunct stream.
  • Mindfulness meditation (meditation-practice) — separate behavioral intervention when anxiety is the primary target.

Tertiary map

Wikipedia: Magnesium (wikipedia-magnesium-overview) covers element roles, deficiency, dietary intake, and laxative uses—navigation only; ISI, PSQI, and pooled SOL minutes belong to the PubMed-linked rows above.

Evidence