If you are constantly feeling tired, if you do not have enough quality sleep and you are tired during the day, we recommend that you read the following article, maybe the cause of your sleep disorders is magnesium deficiency.
Can magnesium supplements relieve insomnia?
Will consuming magnesium be beneficial for improving our sleep quality?
In the following, we intend to provide scientific answers to the above questions.
Doctors say that half of the elderly have sleep disorders, meaning that 50% of the elderly have problems falling asleep, staying asleep and continuing to sleep, or are constantly tired during the day due to poor sleep quality at night. What is the cause of this problem?
According to doctors, with age, many changes occur in the body system and the total of these changes puts the elderly at a higher risk of developing various sleep disorders. Will taking magnesium supplements improve their sleep?
what you will read next :
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- Definition of insomnia
- Are sleep and insomnia problems limited to the elderly?
- Possible complications if sleep disorder is not treated
- What do doctors do to treat sleep disorders?
- Magnesium and the human body
- Complications of magnesium deficiency
- What is the role of magnesium in our nervous system?
- Can Magnesium Supplements Improve Sleep Disorders?
- Overall research results
- How to take magnesium supplement?
- Summary
Definition of insomnia
Insomnia is defined by doctors as follows:
Dissatisfaction with the duration and amount of sleep or dissatisfaction with the quality of sleep.
Sleep disorders should be evaluated when they are persistent and chronic.
The three major manifestations of sleep disorders are:
- Hard to fall asleep
- Difficulty in continuing sleep
- Waking up early
Sleep disorders are not an integral part of aging and only increase the probability of occurrence with increasing years of life, that is, aging itself will not cause sleep disorders alone, but there are factors and problems related to aging that will cause sleep problems.
You will find sleep disorders in the elderly who do not have adequate and standard aging conditions.
As these people get older, doctors say that their sleep efficiency has decreased, which means that the percentage of time they sleep after going to bed has decreased and they will not have deep and quality sleep.
Are sleep and insomnia problems limited to the elderly?
no!
To answer the above question, it is not bad to use valid statistics as follows:
Authentic statistical studies say that sleep disorders and insomnia symptoms in all age groups have a prevalence of about ten to forty-eight percent.
The prevalence of these problems and insomnia in the elderly as an independent age group is forty-two percent. Most of these people have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.
It is estimated that 5% of the population who did not have any sleep problems at the beginning of the year develop at least one of the symptoms of sleep disorders at the end of the study year.
According to a larger study, more than 50 percent of adults over the age of 60 have had insomnia.
Possible complications if sleep disorder is not treated
What is the importance of dealing with sleep disorders?
What are the side effects of sleep disorders and not getting enough quality sleep?
Complications of not having enough and quality sleep will be:
- Fatigue throughout the day and decreased mental and physical function during the day
- Memory weakness
- Obvious problems in short-term memory.
- Increase the time required to react to events and situations in the environment.
- Decreased quality of life
- Decreased general health
- Increased incidence of fashion disorders such as anxiety disorders and depression
- Increasing people’s costs for health
To be more precise, insomnia in the elderly can lead to much more serious complications.
For example, it puts them at greater risk of falling, reduces a person’s physical function, causes many cognitive disorders, and even increases the risk of death by 3.1 to 3 times.
What do doctors do to treat sleep disorders?
There are two different methods for treating sleep problems and insomnia.
- Drug methods
- Non-pharmacological methods
It is said that the extent to which non-pharmacological methods will improve people’s sleep problems has not yet been determined.
There is a wide range of medications used to improve and eliminate insomnia problems.
And the important thing is that doctors say that the harms of continuous use of these drugs will outweigh their benefits.
Elderly people with sleep disorders will have to take these drugs chronically to improve their insomnia and control their sleep disorders.
Therefore, the importance of side effects of drugs in the elderly is very high and unsafe drug treatments in the elderly should be avoided as much as possible.
This is where the importance of treating insomnia and sleep problems with magnesium supplements comes into play.
Magnesium and the human body
In our body there are all kinds of natural elements in the form of ions, magnesium is the fourth most abundant positive ion in our whole body (in terms of amount, it is the second most positive ion inside cells).
Magnesium is an important chemical mediator in our body’s vital reactions, meaning that doctors believe that more than 300 important reactions in our body require magnesium.
It is natural that sleep control also depends on the balance of some of these neurotransmitters. In people who have low magnesium in their body for any reason, such as the elderly who suffer from magnesium deficiency due to digestive problems, malnutrition and malabsorption, the production of sleep neurotransmitters is essential. Production of essential neurotransmitters in the sleep process will lead to imbalance and disproportion
As a person gets older, their bone mass decreases. Bones are an important source of magnesium in the body, so older people are more likely to be deficient in magnesium.
Unfortunately, public awareness of magnesium is very low, and most people do not know that they need to get oral magnesium just as they need calcium and vitamin D.
Statistics show that oral magnesium intake is low in different age groups
People who do not eat whole grains and fresh green leafy vegetables are more likely to be deficient in magnesium.
Complications of magnesium deficiency
The main problems associated with the reduction of magnesium in the body are:
- Reduce oral magnesium intake and magnesium-containing foods
- Lack of absorption and impaired gastrointestinal and intestinal absorption of magnesium
- Increased excretion of magnesium from urine and intestines
The standard intake of magnesium should be in the following amounts:
Men 420 mg daily
Women 320 mg daily
What is the role of magnesium in our nervous system?
You may ask why a lack of magnesium causes insomnia and sleep disorders?
Doctors say more studies are needed to get the major roles of magnesium, but so far they have explained the following roles for magnesium ions in the human nervous system.
- Help build many effective neurotransmitters in sleep.
- Regulation of the conduction of neural messages in the nerve fibers of the brain
- Connection of protein factors involved in brain and spinal cord function to their specific receptors on target cells
- Major role in neurotransmission
- Major role in regulating the excitability of the central nervous system, (the brain and spinal cord)
- Increase the sedative effects of sedatives in the brain
Can Magnesium Supplements Improve Sleep Disorders?
Numerous studies and tests have been performed to investigate the effects of magnesium supplementation on sleep improvement. The results of this study suggest that magnesium supplementation may improve sleep. Standard magnesium supplements are likely to be more important in the elderly to improve sleep.
Researchers say that studies have shown that older people who received melatonin plus magnesium slept better and had better daily activities.
Magnesium supplements can also lower the stress hormone or cortisol in the first half of sleep to make sleep easier.
On the other hand, taking magnesium alone can increase melatonin in the blood. You know melatonin as a sleep hormone.
Overall research results
In general, what can be obtained from the above studies and research will be as follows:
Magnesium deficiency will definitely affect the human physiological and biological cycle
Magnesium deficiency is associated with a decrease in serum melatonin.
And magnesium deficiency is significantly associated with sleep disorders.
Studies show that taking standard magnesium supplements can be used as an alternative method of controlling and treating sleep disorders and insomnia, especially in the elderly. Other age groups with insomnia may also benefit from magnesium supplements and experience better and deeper sleep.
How to take magnesium supplement?
What has been stated in the above studies is as follows:
- Daily consumption of 500 mg of magnesium in the standard supplement for two months (eight weeks)
In case of supplementation by the above method, it has been reported that the following results will be obtained:
- Sleep hours will increase
- People’s sleep efficiency will be higher
The amount of sleep hormone or melatonin in the blood of people will also increase.
And it will reduce the level of stress hormone or cortisol when people fall asleep.
It is important to know that there are no side effects at a daily dose of 500 mg of magnesium.
At higher doses, some people may experience gastrointestinal side effects such as intestinal irritation and diarrhea.
More than three-quarters of people in the community do not have enough magnesium in their daily diet. It is recommended that people with kidney problems or low heart rate do not eat too much green leafy vegetables and pumpkin and walnut seeds
summary
Adequate and quality sleep is necessary to have a healthy mind and body. Dynamic and quality life will not be possible without good sleep. sleep disorders can occur for various reasons, physical problems and anatomical and structural disorders of the body, hormonal disorders, mental and psychological problems and deficiency of some vitamins and minerals can be associated with dehydration.
So the best way is that if you also have sleep disorders, consult your doctor first so that after finding the cause of insomnia, you can get help from appropriate treatment strategies.
Finally, we name some substances that can help you control and treat insomnia and sleep disorders.
Vitamin E, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, Melatonin, Tryptophan (turkey, milk, eggs, salmon and spinach) and Thiamine (green tea and some mushrooms).