Magnesium keeping me awake!

Hey guys I find when taking zma or any magnesium supreme it keeps me awake rather then helping with sleep (I've even tried lowering the dosage). Anyone have any insight to why this may occur when research shows it helps with sleep. Thanks
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Replies

  • Cylphin60
    Cylphin60 Posts: 863 Member
    edited December 2016
    Following this thread. My insomnia has gotten pretty bad since starting a new mv with 20mg of magnesium. I never thought it might be that.

    edit: nevermind. My old mv had 5 times that amount. Best of luck OP.
  • WickAndArtoo
    WickAndArtoo Posts: 773 Member
    Any chance you have made any other lifestyle changes (like working out at night instead of the day etc).

    What time do you usually take your magnesium? And have you tried other types or brands to see if that helps?
  • ClubSilencio
    ClubSilencio Posts: 2,983 Member
    Could be a calcium-magnesium imbalance. You should strive for a 2:1 or even a 1.5:1 ratio.

    Insomnia can be symptom of calcium deficiency.

  • crabbybrianna
    crabbybrianna Posts: 344 Member
    I had to stop taking magnesium (magnesium citrate powder) because of this. All I ever heard was that it helped sleep so for quite a while I didn't think that was why I was having sleep problems, but then I forgot to take it one night and I slept normally. I've taken it a few times since then and every time, I have trouble sleeping (falling asleep and staying asleep). No more magnesium for me.
  • BeastofBodmin
    BeastofBodmin Posts: 34 Member
    I stopped taking ZMA for the very same reason,wired all night.
  • nickhinds88
    nickhinds88 Posts: 44 Member
    It could be the b6 in the zma keeping you up not the magnesium.
  • bukkalevy
    bukkalevy Posts: 1 Member
    Just so you know you're not crazy, magnesium keeps me awake too. I've tested it on and off for months trying to rule out anything else. It is without a doubt the magnesium, specifically Natural Calm for me. I can't sleep more than a two hour stretch at a time, then it's sporadic after that.
    I wanted to comment because I see all over the internet people complaining of this and the response is always to the effect of "that's not possible" "it's something else" "you're doing it wrong" "it's your lifestyle" - but this is clearly a thing.
    Under any conditions or circumstances I can sleep great one night, take magnesium and sleep like crap the next, and reverse it within a day or two by stopping.
    I'd love to know why.
  • emmabemma128
    emmabemma128 Posts: 1 Member
    Very glad to hear I'm not the only one with problems when taking Magnesium. I had been having trouble falling asleep & have PVC's so I decided to try out some Natural Calm. Packet had 1.5 tsp but I only gave myself 1/2 tsp and was up ALL NIGHT. Fell asleep for an hour and then couldn't go back to bed. Triggered four hours worth of googling side effects too see if I had possibly overdosed or was having an allergic reaction. Will never be taking magnesium again.

    The only other time I have had the reverse side effect of a drug was when I was given benadryl when I was younger, also caused me to be up all night. Wonder if there's any correlation !
  • 76Crane76
    76Crane76 Posts: 133 Member
    What time of day is the magnesium taken? At one point it was recommended for me at bedtime but I'm wondering if it is taken earlier will there be less sleep disturbance?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    astonjnew wrote: »
    Hey guys I find when taking zma or any magnesium supreme it keeps me awake rather then helping with sleep (I've even tried lowering the dosage). Anyone have any insight to why this may occur when research shows it helps with sleep. Thanks

    There are several forms of magnesium - is the kind in your supplements the same as the kind in the studies? If yes, try something else for sleep. I like one 1 mg sub-lingual melatonin and one 1 mg tablet of melatonin.
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    Keeps my hubs up too but I use magnesium glycinate during the day and sleep hard at night,glycine is a calming amino acid
  • anatiuk
    anatiuk Posts: 1 Member
    Following this thread and I can completely identify. Whenever I take magnesium I get a jumpy restless feeling that keeps me awake for hours. So, I take my Natural Calm in the morning, and 750 mg of calcium at night. It’s actually calcium that calms my muscles and helps me sleep! And to emmabemma128, I also have that reaction to Benadryl. It makes me feel like I’m on caffeine and my body feels like it’s vibrating!
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    Some people have a paradoxical The reaction to certain medications and supplements. This means that the body reacts in the opposite way from what is intended. It's a type of side effect. There is no specific reason and nothing that can be done about it. It's all a matter of trial and error. Sorry that happened to you.

    PS Sometimes it can be a result of the blenders & binders used - the stuff used to hold the pill together, so you could try a different form of the supplement or a difference manufacturer.

    There was a tread about the binders issue a few years back.

  • Keto_Vampire
    Keto_Vampire Posts: 1,670 Member
    edited November 2018
    ><...inert ingredients (binders) only affect how quickly the drug takes to diffuse into the body (simple passive diffusion). Inert materials/binders causing problems is extremely rare (i.e. idiopathic allergic reaction); they get bashed way to much by the lay person/general public simply due to ignorance (scary "chemical name I can not pronounce so it must be bad, right?").

    Magnesium as well as pyridoxine (precursor in GABA production) are both weak CNS depressants...(goes off in a rant to self...). Likely one of dozens of OTHER factors/variables @ play environment, lifestyle, diet, other substances, etc. affecting your sleep.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,722 Member
    Are you certain that you were magnesium deficient in the first place? Over-supplementing magnesium can be a problem, at some level.

    (Just speculating. I started taking magnesium citrate. Results: Good. I wondered if the dose was where I needed it, so I took a little more. Results: Not Good. Just my N =1 subjective experience, though.)
  • AJB1014
    AJB1014 Posts: 1,380 Member
    anatiuk wrote: »
    Following this thread and I can completely identify. Whenever I take magnesium I get a jumpy restless feeling that keeps me awake for hours. So, I take my Natural Calm in the morning, and 750 mg of calcium at night. It’s actually calcium that calms my muscles and helps me sleep! And to emmabemma128, I also have that reaction to Benadryl. It makes me feel like I’m on caffeine and my body feels like it’s vibrating!

    I just purchased some magnesium calm - more for leg cramps for me, and sleep for DH - but this i really insightful and I'll keep it in mind because I also tend to get wired on benadryl. I'll have to add calcium to my list of supplements and possibly try out that to help ease my muscle spasms.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    I'm on a fairly high dose of magnesium as part of my migraine management protocol.

    I sleep like a baby.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,983 Member
    Finding this thread interesting - I started taking magnesium for non-sleep reasons, originally was taking in the morning, but moved to evenings - was noticing that I was struggling with sleeping as well as I was used to - didn't think it was that (I was blaming my multi instead), but ran out of my current bottle recently, and the past few nights have slept great, still taking my multi.

    Hmmmm, may have to make that a morning thing!