Took magnesium for months and still can't sleep? 6 reasons people who gave up on magnesium are sleeping through the night with a hot cocoa
Carol's husband Mike opened the cabinet over the coffee maker and 3 bottles of magnesium fell out. He lined them up with 2 more bottles, a powder tub and a spray. "Seven. And you were up at 3 again."
Carol is 47 and teaches second grade in Fort Wayne. She took magnesium every night for 4 months because everyone said to, and her sleep got lighter.
She tried drugstore tablets, a fizzy powder, a spray and capsules from the health food store, and she was still up at 3. Here are the six things that changed it, starting with the morning Mike counted the bottles.
The one that worked is a hot cocoa, one scoop, 30 minutes before bed.
1. The morning her husband lined up 7 bottles of magnesium on the counter
For 4 months Carol took magnesium every night because everyone said to, and her sleep got lighter. Some nights she fell asleep fine. Other nights she lay there until midnight.
Either way she was awake at 3, then every hour after that, planning the next day's spelling test. One Saturday Mike opened the cabinet over the coffee maker and 3 bottles fell out.
He lined up all of it on the counter: 5 bottles, a tub of fizzy powder and a spray. "Seven. And you were up at 3 again."
Sleep through to the alarm2. The drugstore tablets did nothing. The fizzy powder had her in the bathroom at 2am.
The first bottle was the cheap one from the drugstore, 200 tablets for almost nothing. A month on those, no change. The fizzy powder her sister swore by had her in the bathroom at 2am.
The spray went on her calves at bedtime and changed nothing. The capsules from the health food store helped her relax: her shoulders came down and the twitch in her eyelid stopped. They didn't keep her asleep.
She still woke at 3 with her head going through every kid in her class. Each bottle was one kind of magnesium.
Stop waking up at 3am3. A hospital dietitian read all 7 labels: magnesium was only doing one of three jobs
Carol's neighbor Jen, a hospital dietitian, turned every bottle around. "Oxide is the cheap one. Most of it never gets absorbed. Citrate gets absorbed, but it's also sold as a laxative. That's your 2am bathroom trip.
Glycinate relaxes your muscles, and that part worked. L-threonate is the form made to reach the brain, and you don't have any. But magnesium on its own does one job.
Three things keep you up: tight muscles, racing thoughts at bedtime and stress hormones that start climbing between 2 and 4, right when sleep is at its lightest."
Fall asleep and stay asleep4. One hot cocoa for tight muscles, racing thoughts and the 3am wake-up
Jen brought over a pouch of Mellow, the cocoa she drinks most nights. It has no melatonin: one scoop in hot water or milk, 30 minutes before bed.
Magnesium glycinate relaxes your muscles, and magnesium L-threonate is the form made to reach the brain. For falling asleep, L-theanine quiets the racing thoughts without knocking you out.
For staying asleep, ashwagandha lowers cortisol, the stress hormone that climbs before dawn: in its own 60-day trial it dropped 28% against 8% on placebo. Valerian, jujube seed and reishi have been taken for sleep for centuries.
Get the cocoa Jen drinks5. Night 1 she still woke at 3. By week 3 Mike noticed she was sleeping through.
Night 1: Carol woke at 3:10, but she was back asleep by 3:30 instead of planning the spelling test. Night 4: asleep before the end of the 10 o'clock news, up once at 4:40, back asleep.
Week 2: three nights straight through to the 5:45 alarm. Week 3: Mike came down on Saturday and said, "You haven't been up at 3 all week.
I keep waiting for the floor to creak." Week 4: she slept through 6 nights out of 7.
Sleep through the night6. The cabinet over the coffee maker holds coffee filters again
In week 4 Carol bagged all 7 bottles and carried them out to the garage. She falls asleep by 10:30 and sleeps through to her 5:45 alarm.
Now the cabinet over the coffee maker has coffee filters and one pouch of cocoa in it. Mike opens it every morning, and nothing falls out. One pouch is 30 cups.
Your first box comes with a free sleep mask and frother, and shipping is free. If you aren't sleeping better within 60 nights, email us and we refund every dollar, and you keep the pouch.
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