Dr Michael Mosley on the importance of routine for sleep
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Sleep loss, which afflicts one in three Britons, has many causes. Fortunately, you do not have to establish the cause to find a solution. Simple dietary tweaks have been shown to aid sleep loss.
According to Doctor Hilary, you could do a lot worse than supplementing with magnesium.
The mineral has been shown to “help the neurotransmitters”, which play a role in regulating sleep, he explained on ITV’s Lorraine.
While researchers recognise that magnesium plays an important role in sleep regulation, they do not fully understand the effect of magnesium on sleep behaviours.
“What’s clear from the research is that a lack of magnesium negatively impacts sleep,” says the Sleep Foundation.
According to the health body, low levels of magnesium are associated with poor sleep quality and insomnia.
“Anxiety and depression also correlate with low magnesium levels, and both anxiety and depression can contribute to insomnia.”
It cites a study involving elderly patients with insomnia, which found taking 500 mg of magnesium daily for eight weeks improved many subjective and objective measures of insomnia.
The patients:
- Fell asleep faster and slept longer
- Increased their sleep efficiency, meaning they spent more time sleeping while they were in bed
- Woke up later and reduced early morning awakening
- Experienced increased concentrations of melatonin, a sleep hormone, and serum renin which plays a role in regulating blood pressure.
Magnesium is found in a wide variety of foods, including spinach, nuts and wholemeal bread.
How much is safe to take?
The Department of Health and Social Care says: “Having 400mg or less a day of magnesium from supplements is unlikely to cause any harm.”
However, if you take magnesium supplements, do not take too much as this could be “harmful”, the health body warns.
According to the NHS, taking high doses of magnesium (more than 400mg) for a short time can cause diarrhoea.
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