Taking These Two Supplements Together Is Scientifically Proven To Help Sleep

As you sleep, your body remains at work to repair, restore, and grow tissues. This period of the day is also when your brain performs housekeeping tasks, making it the body part you never knew that eats itself. For these reasons, the amount and quality of sleep that you get has a huge impact on how you feel while you're awake. Scientists have linked not getting enough quality sleep to a myriad of health issues, so you might be looking for a reliable solution if you're struggling to get rest at night. Fortunately, the combination of magnesium and melatonin has shown promising results.

In a study published in Nature and Science of Sleep, researchers found that magnesium alone helps regulate sleep in several ways, such as calming the nervous system, relaxing the muscles, and regulating the circadian rhythm and cellular biological clock. That's why one of the best foods to help you sleep is pumpkin seeds; they're packed with 500 milligrams of magnesium per 100 gram serving (per the USDA). Meanwhile, melatonin is a natural hormone that your body automatically produces when it gets dark, signaling that it's time to sleep.

Research into a combination treatment with a vitamin B complex published in Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences, though, has promising results for people with insomnia, a condition that involves difficulty falling and/or staying asleep. After three months of taking a magnesium-melatonin-vitamin B complex, the insomnia patients reported lower Athens insomnia scale scores — dropping from a moderate 15 to a mild 10.5.

The aforementioned studies indicate that magnesium and melatonin have synergistic benefits, essentially amplifying the positive effects of each other. However, each of these supplements has potential side effects and may not be suitable for everyone to take. Excessive magnesium intake, for instance, can cause abdominal cramping, diarrhea, and nausea. Magnesium toxicity is even a possibility with extremely high doses, and that can lead to irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and cardiac arrest. Additionally, magnesium may not be something that everyone can take because it could interact with some medications.

Melatonin has its own potential side effects, especially what's referred to as the melatonin hangover phenomenon. Like an alcohol hangover, this side effect generally occurs with excessive melatonin intake that may cause a pounding headache, grogginess, and nausea. Scientists expressed in a study published in Neurology International that more research into the physiological effects of using melatonin over the long term is needed. Also, there's a possibility that it could interact with medications like birth control pills, antibiotics, and antidepressants.

Because of these potential side effects, it's important that you speak with your doctor before taking magnesium and melatonin. Getting advice on how much of each supplement to take and when to take it may go a long way at preventing these side effects.