You may be a beauty but you sure aren’t sleeping

Happy Father’s Day!

8%er… Zzzz. Zzzz. Hold on, what is that? A mosquito? No, it’s just you catching some Z’s! This week’s newsletter is a real eye-opener (or should we say eye-closer?) because, drumroll please, it’s all about magnesium and how it helps with sleep. With Father’s Day just past us, what better late-gift than the secret to a good night’s sleep? And for those of us who rely on caffeine during the day only to toss and turn at night, you’re going to want to read this.

     ⛓️ The Magnesium-Sleep Link

     😴 GABA goodness

     🔄 The Vicious Circle

The Magnesium-Sleep Link

Needless to say, sleep is important, like very important. It keeps your body healthy and away from your axe-murderer side. Sleep is not just a period of rest, but a fundamental process that supports physical health, cognitive function, and emotional well-being. Prioritizing good sleep hygiene and ensuring adequate sleep duration are crucial for overall health and quality of life. So, how do the two relate, magnesium and sleep? Let’s connect the dots.

Magnesium is basically your brain’s bouncer. It blocks signals that make you stay awake and invites those that help you sleep. Let us explain.

Magnesium helps activate neurotransmitters responsible for calming the body and the mind. It slows the release of excitatory neurotransmitters like glutamate and NMDA. Big words, we know, so let's break them down as it is necessary to understand the rest of this newsletter.

Neurotransmitters are brain chemicals that communicate information throughout the brain and body. An excitatory neurotransmitter likes to talk… a lot. They send messages to be passed along to the next cell, and so on.

I’ll take me some GABA

Magnesium promotes sleep by stimulating GABA, a neurotransmitter, assisting in the production of serotonin and melatonin. GABA blocks and prevents a chemical message from being passed along any further, essentially giving your body a break. Now, we’ve gone over serotonin in our past newsletters, but what is melatonin?Melatonin, simply put, is a hormone that your brain produces in response to darkness that tells your body it’s time to go to sleep.

The Vicious Circle

Ever heard of cortisol? Yeah it’s pretty much the protagonist of stress. And who guessed it– magnesium has proven to be a key mediator of stress, and demonstrated that it plays an inhibitory role in the regulation of stress. Cortisol is responsible for what is known as the vicious stress circle, says the NlH: stress increases magnesium loss, causing a deficiency; and in turn, magnesium deficiency increases the body’s susceptibility to stress– hence, a destructive cycle is formed.

Ok, so calming the brain– check. Boosting sleep hormones– check. Regulating cortisol– check. And now the last box to check off, muscle relaxation. First let's understand how muscle contraction works. Calcium binds to proteins in your muscles which changes the shape of these proteins, generating a contraction. And like musical chairs, magnesium competes with calcium for these same binding spots to help relax your muscles. If your body doesn’t have enough magnesium to compete with calcium, your muscles may contract too much, causing cramps or spasms.

So, are we ready for some Z’s?

So, how do you get proper magnesium intake? That’s OmniBlue’s 8oz.’s cue. Enter stage: A beautiful bottle of liquid minerals made from the cleanest waters on the planet, shiny bottle and all. With 100% of your daily intake of magnesium, our liquid minerals are the absolute perfect way to get all of your magnesium in, naturally. And it’s even better for those of us with pill fatigue! 

Take care everyone, and a very Happy Father’s Day to all of you role models out there. See you next week!