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3 Scientifically Proven Supplements To Help You Stay Asleep

Modified on Oct 22, 2023 | Earth Clinic Team

by Art Solbrig
Published August 11, 2020
Updated August 20, 2020

In Pursuit of Restful Sleep And Help For Nocturia

We can all use some restful night's sleep, but not much good to get to sleep only to have to wake up every hour to go to the bathroom! So toward the end of this post, I mention two supplements to help with nocturia. This combination should be useful for many as long as they can tolerate the supplements.

One topic that seems to come up regularly on Earth Clinic is poor sleep or insomnia, so I thought I would try another experiment to see if I could improve my current sleep regimen. On that note, I can say that I found a bit of improvement with the addition of zinc to my normal magnesium and melatonin 123 sleep regimen.*

*Editor's Note: Art is referring to his nighttime regime of 10mg of melatonin once per hour starting a 8pm for a total of 30mg. In other words, one 10mg capsule at 8pm, one 10mg capsulte at 9pm, and one 10mg at 10pm.

While medical marijuana can be useful for sleep, it is not available to everyone unless you live where it is legal, so another effective alternative would be desirable.

I have been using the melatonin 123 and one magnesium supplement with it, such as Magnesium L Threonate, Magnesium Glycinate, and Magnesium Taurate.

This combination of magnesium and melatonin 123* seems to work reasonably well.

Still, I wanted to see if there is any room for improvement, so I started reading studies on supplements that can help with sleep. I came across several studies that looked interesting. One study caught my attention since I already use two of the three mentioned supplements, so I added the missing supplement to my sleep regimen and asked a friend with sleep issues to try it at the same time.

Our results showed an unscientific improvement in sleep quality after three days, so I thought I would share it with EC since sleep issues are so common, and hopefully, someone else will also find it useful to improve their sleep.

Magnesium

This Psychology Today article discusses the use of magnesium as a sleep aid:

The next study clearly indicates that magnesium is useful in insomnia in the elderly:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703169/

Zinc

The following link illustrates zinc as a sleep aid:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5713303/

Melatonin, Magnesium, and Zinc

In this study, they used melatonin, magnesium, and zinc. I had never heard of zinc used as a sleep aid before, which also caught my interest. Here is a link to the double-blind placebo-controlled study abstract:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21226679/

Dosing based on the above study of three supplements for sleep are as follows:

1. Magnesium - 225 mg one hour before bed
2. Zinc - 11.25 mg one hour before bed
3. Melatonin - 5 mg one hour before bed

For the past week, a friend and I have been experimenting with the addition of zinc to melatonin and magnesium.

I gave the same set of supplements to my friend to use, and we both have been taking them for a week. My friend said it definitely does seem to improve sleep in terms of length and deeper sleep (much less waking from sleep and easier to fall back to sleep, as well as fewer trips to the bathroom during the night).

Since I was already taking melatonin 123 and magnesium taurate, it was easier to determine what difference the addition of zinc made, and I would describe that difference as more restful and longer sleep ( 7 to 8 hours instead of 6) after a few nights of use.

Since I already had the three ingredients, I should mention that I took them at the dosages that I had on hand, which were higher for the zinc and melatonin than what was used in the study. I also did not use the pear pulp that they used as a carrier for the three supplements.

How Melatonin Can Help Nocturia

Here is one more study that explains why fewer trips to the bathroom (nocturia) was one of the benefits noted by my friend:

Effects of melatonin and rilmazafone on nocturia in the elderly - PubMed

Pumpkin Seed Oil Can Reduce Trips to the Bathroom

Additional help for nocturia and an overactive bladder may be found with the additional supplement of Pumpkin Seed Oil, as outlined here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2225411016302127

Additional Tips for Better Sleep

Other things you can do to improve sleep are:

1. Avoid as much artificial light, from all sources, as possible for 1½ hours before bed.

2. Wear soft and comfortable fabric blackout glasses while sleeping.

3. Keep the room comfortably cool around 65 ~ 67°F (18 ~ 20°C).

4. Maintain a regular sleep/wake cycle.

5. Expose yourself to bright sunlight every morning for 10 to 15 minutes.

6. Consider a weighted blanket. Some people sleep better with a "heavy blanket."

7. No late evening eating or drinking.

8. The more physically active you are during the day, including exercise, the more likely you will sleep well at night.

Concluding Thoughts

I just wanted to share this information with the Earth Clinic community, and hopefully, these three inexpensive supplements can work as well or better for you as it does for my friend and myself!

Lastly, it is a healthier alternative to prescription sleep aids, because each of these three supplements has other health benefits besides sleep, and they are not addictive!

Art