If you’ve been dealing with sleepless nights, groggy wake-ups or just never feeling fully rested, you are definitely not alone. Sleep deprivation is one of the most common health issues in a modern world. It’s no surprise that people are seeking natural, plant-derived solutions instead of pharmaceutical sleep products. A quietly effective option that has been getting some serious buzz is vegan magnesium glycinate complex. What is a complex? It’s a precisely constructed blend of magnesium glycinate, magnesium citrate, and magnesium oxide that works with your body’s own chemistry to promote deeper, more restorative sleep. Here are four of the main questions we’re regularly asked….
Will a Vegan Magnesium Glycinate Complex Actually Help Me Sleep Better?
The short answer is “yes”. Here’s why: “the science” suggests that magnesium is certainly central to regulating the nervous system and activating the parasympathetic, or “rest and digest” response that your body requires in order to wind down at night. It also promotes production of GABA, a neurotransmitter that calms neural firing and encourages relaxation. In a well-formulated vegan magnesium complex, the glycinate form is especially useful for sleep. That’s because the magnesium is bonded to the amino acid glycine. Glycine has an independent calming effect of on the brain that enhances core body temperature reduction to help you get into deep sleep. Magnesium supplementation has been clinically studied and is significantly associated with quicker sleep onset, decreased number of awakenings during the night, and overall improved sleep quality in individuals that take it. For people with restless legs, nighttime muscle cramps or anxiety-infested insomnia, the results can be apparent after only a few nights.
Is it Necessary to Have Three Forms of Magnesium in One Supplement?
Each type of magnesium in a good vegan complex has a purpose. That is precisely why combining them works better than just having one source. At the formula's heart is magnesium glycinate. It’s very bioavailable, easy on the gut, and doubly soothing since it contains glycine. Magnesium citrate adds additional benefit by helping to relax muscles and relieve the tension and cramps that can interfere with sleep, especially in the legs and lower back. Although it is very low in bioavailability magnesium oxide can be used to give you a useful top-up, helping ensure that you're meeting your baseline daily requirements for the mineral which can be a challenge to get in your normal diet. Together the three forms work in concert to fill our needs in a way that a basic single-source cannot. In a certified vegan formula, all three versions come from non-animal mineral sources with no stearates or capsule materials of animal origin.
What Is The Best Dose of Magnesium and When Should I Take It?
Timing is a critical component of sleep support. The ideal window is 30 to 60 minutes before bed, which allows time for the magnesium to start working its magic on your parasympathetic nervous system before you hit the sheets. Generally, one serving of a vegan magnesium glycinate complex will contain an effective dose of 200 mg to 400 mg elemental magnesium; however individual needs vary according to body weight, dietary intake, and severity of sleep disruption. If you’re new to magnesium supplementation, starting at the lower end of the range is a good idea. That’s especially true if you’re using something with citrate in it, which can cause mild laxative effects in higher doses in some people. The beauty of the glycinate-focused complex is that, in general, you can take it on an empty stomach without harm. That is not the situation with many other mineral supplements.
How Quickly Will I Feel The Results of Taking A Magnesium Glycinate Supplement?
This is one of the key questions for anyone sitting on the fence about buying. The honest answer is……it depends. Some people experience a significant improvement in relaxation and sleep depth after the first couple of nights on magnesium, especially if they were very deficient. For others, the benefits accrue more slowly over one to two weeks as cellular magnesium levels are replenished. A vegan magnesium complex is, by design, not a “knock you out” solution like melatonin or sedative sleep aids. It restores a physiological baseline that enables your body to sleep as it was meant to. That nuance is, in fact, one of its greatest advantages. It is the type of sleep that is natural (non-groggy) and restorative, instead of medicated. But consistency is the name of the game here. It works best if you take it nightly, rather than from time to time.
