Digestery
Everyday supplements › Magnesium and Sleep › Studies

Randomized trial · measured other health measures

60-day trial in 175 adults with leg cramps: sleep quality improved more with magnesium

Barna and colleagues · Nutrition journal · 2021

Original title: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study assessing the efficacy of magnesium oxide monohydrate in the treatment of nocturnal leg cramps.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

Leg cramp episodes fell more with magnesium than placebo (- 3.4 vs - 2.6; p = 0.01). Sleep quality improved more with magnesium than placebo (p < 0.001). Sleep was a secondary measure.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
175 people · adults with night-time leg cramps (216 screened, 175 finished)
What was tested
One 226 mg magnesium oxide capsule at bedtime vs placebo for 60 days
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Daily amount
226 mg a day
How long
9 weeks
Trial registration
NCT03807219
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
Nutrition journal, 2021
Source
PubMed record 34719399. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • •Medium size: 175 people.
  • –Short: 9 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: sleep quality and insomnia

    1

    1 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    6

    4 benefit, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    3

    2 mixed, 1 no difference

  5. Blood levels and genes

    3

    2 benefit, 1 no difference

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does magnesium help you sleep?”

Not clearly; trials disagree.

Confidence: very low. Based on 16 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 5 papers on the same step: 3 benefit, 2 no difference. This one found benefit. It agrees with most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 16 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
Not yet. Required before search engines may list this page.

Spot an error? Email a flag with a link to your source, or use the form on the question page.