For the past few years I have gotten terrible sleep every night. Around 9 or 10pm I would get the Jimmy Legs, and it would be downhill from there. It would be really hard to fall asleep, and then I would wake up many times and not be able to fall asleep again. Even when I was asleep it wasn’t very deep or restful.
So I finally went to the doctor and she gave me tips like not watching TV in the evening, reading books, drinking warm milk, and so on. But she closed with the offer of a prescription for Ambien. Sigh, I was disappointed that her advice really boiled down to ‘take drugs’ and I declined.
Hallelujah!
I no longer remember which magazine I found the advice that worked, but it was something silly and definitely not a scientific journal or medical magazine. It was a single sentence in a sidebar that recommended taking a Magnesium supplement before bedtime. At that point I was willing to try anything, especially when I saw that a bottle of it was $3 at Target!
I felt stupid, and kind of like I’d gotten the wool pulled over my eyes, but that night I took a magnesium pill. I fell asleep. I slept all night. I woke up refreshed.
The hell?
It must have been a coincidence, or psychosomatic, right? No! It has been working for months and months now — and recently I discovered that Dr. Google recommends adding calcium to the mix as well, and in a 2-1 ratio with the magnesium.
I tell you people, this has SAVED MY LIFE. I can SLEEP AT NIGHT. I can function again. (And with bones this strong, I’ll be in my 90s crushing cities like Godzilla.)
So here’s my sleep recipe: 1000mg Calcium and 500mg Magnesium about an hour before I want to be asleep. That’s it. Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, I suppose following this advice might kill you or just not work at all. Please talk to a real doctor before trying this.
But seriously, for me it’s like magic.
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(Here’s the exact calcium magnesium supplement I take. It is a huge horse pill, but they’re easy to break in half if you need to. Or you can look around for other options.)
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