Magnesium is the first thing most people try when their sleep needs work. Fair enough. It's involved in hundreds of processes in the body, including the ones that help muscles relax and the nervous system down-shift at night.
But walk into a chemist and you'll find a wall of options. Oxide, citrate, glycinate, threonate, chelated, marine. The form matters more than the label sizes suggest, and most of the cheap ones are cheap for a reason.
The forms, quickly
Magnesium oxide. The cheapest and the most common. Poorly absorbed, which is why it's better known as a laxative than a sleep companion. If your magnesium sends you to the bathroom, this is usually why.
Magnesium citrate. Better absorbed than oxide, still with a mild laxative lean at higher doses. A reasonable general-purpose form.
Magnesium glycinate. Magnesium bound to glycine, the calming amino acid. Well absorbed, gentle on the stomach, and the glycine itself is a compound people take for sleep in its own right. This is the form most often reached for at night, and it's the one we chose.
Magnesium threonate. The newer, more expensive form with interesting early research. You pay a lot per milligram of actual magnesium.
How much
Australian guidelines put the recommended daily intake for adults around 310 to 420 mg depending on age and sex, and plenty of us run under it. Modern diets lean on processed food, and heavy training, sweat and alcohol all draw the level down.
Watch for the difference between the compound number and the elemental number. Magnesium glycinate is mostly glycine by weight, so 730 mg of the compound delivers roughly 146 mg of actual magnesium. Typical nightly serves land between 100 and 300 mg elemental, and the honest labels state both figures. What matters more than a big headline number is that the label tells you the exact form and the elemental dose. If a tub hides its magnesium inside a "proprietary blend", put it back on the shelf. A dose you can't see is a dose you can't judge.
When to take it
Half an hour to an hour before bed suits most people, ideally as part of a consistent wind-down rather than swallowed at the bathroom sink on the way past. Magnesium isn't a knockout pill. It works with a routine, not instead of one.
Taking it with a small drink also does double duty on overnight hydration, which is its own quiet contributor to sleeping through.
How we use it in Settl
Settl uses magnesium glycinate, dosed at the level printed on the panel, alongside glycine, L-theanine and the rest of the seven actives, with an electrolyte base of sodium and potassium. One scoop in cold water before bed. No melatonin, no sugar, no proprietary blends. The exact dose of every active is listed on the ingredients page and on the tub.
We put the doses front and centre because that's how we'd want to shop for it.
Cheers, Roy