A sleep expert has issued a warning on the craze to take magnesium supplements to get a good night’s sleep. Appearing on ITV ’s This Morning show Dr Guy Meadows also told viewers exactly what to do if they wake up at 3am.
Many people have been taking magnesium to help sleep better as it is said to promote relaxation and potentially regulate sleep hormones – however this has not been proved and scientists have said that more research is needed.
Boots, which sells the vitamin tells customers: “Some studies suggest magnesium can help with sleep, and other research has found it may help regulate melatonin** (a hormone produced by your body when it’s dark to help bring on sleep). Evidence from these studies is very limited, however, and more work needs to be done to draw any definite conclusions about its effectiveness as a sleep aid.”
However one celebrity has said it’s helping him sleep – and appearing just before the section on This Morning, comedian Paddy McGuinness said: “Magnesium I’ve just started taking it.” Host Alison Hammond asked: “How are you sleeping then?” Paddy replied: “Lovely but it gives you fruity dreams. I highly recommend it.”
Dr Guy Meadows said “Magnesium we class as one of nature’s tranquilisers so it can certainly help us to calm our nervous system down but as I say with all of my clients we just want to make sure we don’t become overly reliant on it lots of my clients go ‘I can’t sleep unless I’ve got my magnesium and then you start to have the solution becoming part of the problem.”
Presenter Dermot O’Leary asked: “Does that become somewhat psychosomatic, and people think they need it more than they actually need it.” Dr Meadows replied: “80 per cent of people who come to us are taking something to sleep out of desperation. That might be proscribed medication, over-the-counter medication, or herbal remedies or all of the supplements these days, and there can be a physical dependency but also a psychological dependency as well.”
Caller Ollie asked: “Since I can remember I never sleep all the way through. I usually wake up two or three times and just go to the toilet or whatever.” Der Meadows replied: “Ollie I think one of the most important things to understand is that we sleep in cycles which are an hour and a half to two hours long and everyone will wake up in the middle of the night albeit we’re not aware of it.
“What often happens, though, as we get older, we might need to go for a pee, and we also might have more aches and pains, so it’s more likely that we end up coming out of the cycle. Also when we’re stressed or anxious our mind tends to go ‘we should wake up and start worrying about that thing’ and so I often talk about how we respond in those moments is absolutely crucial and it’s the snowball effect.
“What we want to avoid is going from that state of quiet, restful wakefulness to suddenly full-blown wide awake. One of the things people do is grab a phone and scroll. You’ve got the blue light which is stimulating basically telling your brain the day has begun, it inhibits our melatonin, it activates cortisol. Also, it can encourage us to start that daytime thinking where we are worrying about other things that can happen.”
Dermot asked: “How can you train your brain out of that?” Dr Meadows replied: “We want to respond in a way that our brain is going ‘ok it’s still safe to fall back to sleep’. Some simple mindfulness techniques can be really helpful.
“I always talk about getting out of your head and into your bed is very simple body scan whereby you notice where your body makes contact with the bed. You feel the pillow touching the back of your head you feel all the way down to your toes touching the duvet and your mind will still wander off ‘what about tomorrow’ but you just keep coming back and remember that rest is really good for sleep.”
The recommended daily amount of magnesium is 300mg for men and 270mg for women, and it’s naturally found in a variety of foods such as:
- Spinach
- Nuts
- Fish
- Meat
- Wholemeal bread