Forms of magnesium and sleep

[seaflower]

I'm like everyone else on here, I guess. Taken Clonopin for years/decades. Tried every herb, every *something* that is supposed to make you sleep. Taken every form of magnesium I have ever heard of. Nothing worked.

(Okay, L-Glycine for three nights per the Japanese study DID produce a better quality sleep for one night --and cured fibro) google Japanese Glycine sleep study, I think.

But yesterday I bought magnesium OIL--which is not technically an oil, but a solution. Anyway magnesium is very hard to absorb and I must be one of the worst at not being able to absorb it. Last night I took the usual Clonopin and rubbed some magnesium oil on the bottom of my feet--------and FELL ASLEEP almost immediately!!!!!

Now, I must admit, I woke up hours later and had to apply more magnesium oil BUT I fell right back to sleep again. I also woke up again, rinse, repeat. This has never happened before.

It's not a panacea. I feel sort of dazed as if I did not really have that great a sleep but this is progress for me.

AND yesterday I also bought a few packets of magnesium powder that you mix into a drink. "Calm"...something. I took that and my feet were still cramping up from lack of magnesium. It wasn't from lack of potassium I don't think because I put a banana in with it and made a smoothie. But that magnesium could have helped with the sleep although I am more inclined to think that it was the magnesium oil. Especially since I woke up, rubbed in on my feet, and went right back to sleep.

I made my husband some of the magnesium drink. It is citrus flavored--makes magnesium citrate. He slept about 12 hours, no prowling around the house in the middle of the night with insomnia.

He does not have CFS but it helped him. I DO have CFS so it's going to take more than just magnesium oil on my feet but I did want to share this information. You can make cheap mag oil with distilled water and mag chloride or epsom salts and then spray it on. BTW, a bath in epsom salts has never had any effect on me. This oil/solution must be very concentrated? That could be why it worked.

 

[caledonia]

That's great that you found some mag that works for you. You may be quite depleted due to weak adrenals which causes your body not to hold onto mag like it's supposed to. This will cause twitching feet at night which will wake up all night long. I did 1800mg (huge amount) for many years. Now as my adrenals have gotten better with methylation, I don't need near as much mag.

Clonezepam depletes melatonin, the sleep hormone. So while it's prescribed for sleep, it will also perversely cause insomnia. The solution is to supplement with 1.5mg to 3mg melatonin an hour before you want to go to bed. An extended release version worked best for me.

You can also try serotonin support in the morning, either 5htp or tryptophan. This simulates your body's natural neurotransmitter production cycle. If you're on an SSRI or SNRI those are contraindicated.

Then you may want to apply mag like three times a day, as well as before bedtime, to make sure you're getting enough of it.

The root cause is either gut issues and/or methylation issues, both of which will affect neurotransmitter production.

 

[seaflower]

I think I do have adrenal issues.

I'm going to try to put my 23andMe results in my signature so maybe people can help me. It would be great to sleep through the night with NO clonopin (if that could ever be possible) and also not to be so weak and tired feeling all the time. Oh--disappearing of food allergies would be fun too. Sleep is the most crucial though. Sleep and feeling rested.

 

[Beyond]

Sigh, for me magnesium oil is not helping at all with sleep. And damn, it takes more than an hour to absorb! I think is a hassle compared with popping pills or drinking something. I might try putting it in the feet tonight.

Seaflower everytime I see your profile pic "in the distance" is like the face of a woman with a galaxy of colourful stars blocking her eyes. But then is always a surprise to see these flowers in a porch.

 

[xchocoholic]

Natural Calm puts me to sleep but too much causes loose stools. I stick to appr 1/4-1/2 tsp every night in warm water. The water temp needs to almost too hot to drink for me to feel the affects. I add sea salt for taste.

For sleep I was using a combo of 1-9 mg melatonin, 50-300 mg 5 htp and either 100-300 mg Theanine or .125-.5 mg Klonopin but weaned myself off the supplements recently because they were making me feel hung over the next day.

I'm just on klonopin now for nocturnal myoclonus / jerking myself awake all night. I couldn't sleep without this. Sleep disorder test dx this back in the early 90's.

I'm going to try mag oil. I keep hearing good things about it.

btw. I was told to use about 2-3 cups of epsom salt in bath water that was as hot as I could stand it. That's the only way I ever noticed anything. Nothing dramatic tho just a relaxed feeling that lasted a few hours. I did that for years but would recommend Natural Calm instead. Reaction is better and easier to obtain.

tc ... x

 

[seaflower]

Sigh, for me magnesium oil is not helping at all with sleep. And damn, it takes more than an hour to absorb! I think is a hassle compared with popping pills or drinking something. I might try putting it in the feet tonight.

Seaflower everytime I see your profile pic "in the distance" is like the face of a woman with a galaxy of colourful stars blocking her eyes. But then is always a surprise to see these flowers in a porch.

Try it on the soles of the feet. Drinking that Natural Calm might help too.

My profile pic? I never thought of it the way you describe but then I know what it is. It's my pot of nasturtiums this past summer hanging from a wooden bracket. I love nasturtiums.

xchocoholic, I will try the Natural Calm with hot water next time. I wish I could mix it with milk but I'm allergic so I use rice milk. I don't know if I could drink it straight.

Theonine did absolutely nothing for me, I tried it for over a month. Melatonin has never done anything either. 5htp--I bought some to try but I think I got a dosage that is very weak so I haven't even opened it yet.

From my 23andMe genetic testing, the people who are in the know are saying vitamin B12 in a certain form. (which I bought and it gave me a killer headache--but it could be some filler or the cherry flavoring.) There is another form of B12 they said to try so here goes more $$$$$$$$ and another experiment. best of luck to you.

 

[xchocoholic]

I have to combine melatonin, 5htp and either theanine or klonipin for sleep. Singularly these didn't work fir me either.

Natural Factors has a supplement with these combined but the quantities weren't appropriate for me.

Apparently these work synergystically.

I only needed the higher doses if I'd seriously overdone it and eaten gluten or caffeine. A long plane trip would cause me ti need the higher dose or xmas dinner with the family of gluten eaters. ; )

I wouldn't add natural Calm to milk. bleh ..

tc ... x

 

[xchocoholic]

btw only natural Factors 5htp works for me too. I tried 2 other brands and they didn't do anything fir me. Recently i stopped being able to break these down and found them whole in my stools. Breaking these in half and getting them wet worked tho.

It's a real pain experimenting but when you find something that works it feels like a miracle.

tc .. x

 

[Beyond]

Sadly a lot of people experience headaches with methylsupps, it´s not strange. Only melatonin sublingual has worked for me. I also get amazing dreams (and vivid nightmares). My sleep is still badly fragmented but I know in what areas to work to eventually solve that. Gut/Adrenals/Thyroid/Methylation.

It's a real pain experimenting but when you find something that works it feels like a miracle.

Hah yeah exactly like a miracle, and more miraculous the more things you have tried to no avail. You become accostumed to the uselessness of supplements and alternative therapies, not that you would ever turn to conventional docs again as they are notably worse.

 

[xchocoholic]

And then there are the supplements that used to work but now either do nothing or make you feel horrible.

DHEA, pregnenolone, enzymatica sublingual b12, solgar b6, etc etc make me feel horrible now but at one point helped.

fun isn't it ?

 

[Beyond]

That´s pretty awful xchocoholic. I haven´t experienced that yet. I guess the disease progression accounts for that...

 

[Little Bluestem]

AND yesterday I also bought a few packets of magnesium powder that you mix into a drink. "Calm"...something.

Natural Calm can be bought in cans which would probably be less expensive than packets.

 

[seaflower]

Well, time has passed and along with the magnesium oil and the clonopin I experimented with seriphos and NAC. I don't know if either one helped but someone suggested an extended release form of one of them, NAC I think.

That's because the NAC did have some effect: knocking me out at odd times of the day--like 4pm I would suddenly fall asleep! So now I've given those up and am back to clonopin and magnesium oil but not getting good results.

Having to take more clonopin than before--I've been on if for years and years and never had to take 1.5 mg just to sleep four hours and then be wide awake and have to take more. Taking this much causes constipation too.

No, to answer a previous suggestion, tryptophan never worked for me; neither did melatonin. Many experiments, sometimes under dr supervision, but that's not it. Should probably try methyation but need to learn how.