Testing Magnesium as a Treatment for Insomnia in Older Adults

Forty-six elderly adults with insomnia were randomly assigned to take either 500mg of magnesium or a placebo daily for eight weeks, with sleep tracked through questionnaires and sleep logs, and blood samples checked for markers including melatonin and cortisol. The magnesium group showed statistically significant improvements in total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and insomnia severity scores compared with placebo, along with favourable changes in the blood markers measured, supporting a plausible biological pathway rather than just a placebo response.

This is a small trial, 46 people, and it was conducted only in older adults with a clinical insomnia diagnosis, so it doesn't tell us how healthy midlife sleepers without diagnosed insomnia would respond. It's also one of only a handful of controlled trials in this area, meaning its results haven't been extensively replicated. It remains one of the better-designed studies supporting magnesium for sleep, precisely because later reviews have found the surrounding evidence base thinner than popular wellness advice suggests.