meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

When NOT to Take Magnesium for Sleep and Anxiety

Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

Dr. Eric Berg

Health & Fitness

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Let's take a look at magnesium for sleep or anxiety and when you may need to try something else instead. Sometimes, low magnesium is not the cause of your anxiety or sleep problems, and taking it can even worsen your symptoms.


The second part of sleep is called REM sleep. People with higher levels of adrenaline and cortisol tend to wake up around 2:00 am during REM sleep. Magnesium will not fix this problem because the high cortisol levels are not caused by low magnesium.


Stress and lack of exercise can cause poor sleep. Exercise, long walks, and physical labor can reduce stress and improve sleep.


If you find that you have difficulty getting to sleep because of racing thoughts and overthinking, you may be low in vitamin B1. Carbs, sugar, and caffeine can deplete vitamin B1. Taking B1 before bed can provide an immediate sense of calmness. Always choose a natural B1 supplement, not synthetic.


Instead of taking a melatonin supplement, it can be more beneficial to address why you do not have enough melatonin in the first place. Melatonin is inhibited by blue light. Darkness and infrared light recharge melatonin, so try getting sunlight or sitting by a fire.


Vitamin D before bed can help you sleep. Magnesium will not work if you're very low in vitamin D and vice versa.


If you're new to fasting and you go to bed hungry, it can interfere with your sleep. If fasting triggered your sleep problem, scale back, and begin fasting more gradually over time. Try incorporating more carbs at your last meal and increasing your carb intake to 50 grams per day.


Having plenty of sea salt on keto and intermittent fasting is vital. Salt causes your body to retain fluid, so not only will it help you sleep, but it can also help prevent waking to use the bathroom.


If you do need magnesium, try taking magnesium glycinate to help support sleep and reduce anxiety.


DATA:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So if you're deciding to take magnesium to help yourself sleep or maybe for anxiety or stress.

0:06.1

Today we're going to talk about when you might not need magnesium. In fact, the worst thing you could do is buy some

0:11.5

magnesium and then find out it doesn't really work for them.

0:14.1

That's not what they needed. Or it worsens their sleep situation.

0:18.5

Magnesium is supposed to calm you down. It's supposed to lower cortisol and adrenaline.

0:23.0

How could it actually make you more stressed out?

0:27.0

That's the question.

0:28.2

Your anxiety could come from many different causes.

0:31.6

So magnesium is just one remedy to handle one aspect of

0:35.6

sleep and anxiety. As far as sleep goes, we dissect sleep into two different

0:40.1

categories, people that can't get the sleep versus people that can't stay asleep.

0:45.7

When you initially try to go to sleep, if you can go to sleep very easily, chances are you have

0:51.5

good parasympathetics. What does that mean? Well there's two parts of the

0:54.9

nervous system. You have the parasympathetic and that's kind of like the system that actually

0:58.7

pushes you into a deep restful sleep. It keeps you calm and it's mainly responsible for the first

1:05.8

part of the sleep especially the deeper delta wave sleep. Okay. But the second part of

1:11.8

the sleep is more what's called REM sleep. People that have higher levels of adrenaline and cortisol tend to wake up like 2 o'clock in the morning or 2 30 or 3 o'clock in the middle of night and they're like

1:26.4

laying there like okay so I'm more awake now than I am during the day so if we look at

1:30.9

this circadian wave rhythm of cortisol hormone, the lowest point should be at 2 a.m.

1:39.4

and the highest point should be roughly about 8 o'clock in the morning. But a lot of times it's kind of

1:44.7

backwards and you're always going to wake up feeling not very refreshed. So then people

1:50.3

take magnesium because magnesium is supposed to lower cortisol and

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Eric Berg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Eric Berg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.