APEX PWR | Supplement Spotlight
"I think sleep is the most important thing in the world."
That is Erling Haaland, the Norwegian striker who just led his country on a historic World Cup run this summer before a narrow extra-time loss to England ended it. He said it on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast, describing a nightly routine most of us would find extreme: blue-light-blocking glasses for hours before bed, a blacked-out room, even taping his mouth shut to breathe through his nose overnight.
Almost none of us have the time, staff, or budget of a world-class professional athlete, and that is fine. Haaland is right about the fundamental point, though. Sleep is the base layer of human performance, for a striker chasing a World Cup and for a parent running on interrupted nights alike. The rest of us cannot copy his resources, so the smarter question becomes how to get more out of the sleep we actually get.
Most people trying to feel better reach first for a new workout, a cleaner diet, or another cup of coffee. The lever they skip is the one that governs all of it: sleep. Sleep is when the body repairs muscle, consolidates memory, regulates hormones and appetite, and clears the metabolic waste that builds up in the brain during the day. Shortchange it, and every other health effort works against a headwind.
For our core community, busy parents and professionals between 35 and 50, sleep is the resource in shortest supply. This is the season of building a career and a family at the same time, and the hours available for sleep are often fixed by forces outside your control. If you cannot always add hours, the next best move is to get more out of the hours you have. Magnesium is one of the most useful and most overlooked tools for doing exactly that.
Magnesium is a cofactor in more than 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. It is involved in muscle contraction and relaxation, nerve signaling, blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, and the production of cellular energy. It is foundational machinery for how the body runs day to day.
The problem is that most people run low. Analysis of national nutrition survey data found that about 48 percent of Americans consume less magnesium than the estimated average requirement from food, and over half fall short of the recommended daily allowance (roughly 400 to 420 mg for adult men and 310 to 320 mg for adult women). The typical modern diet, heavy in refined and processed foods, is part of the reason.
The demand side makes it worse. The things that define a busy adult life, chronic stress, caffeine, alcohol, and intense exercise, all increase magnesium loss or need. So the exact population working hardest to stay healthy is often the most depleted. That gap is the simplest answer to why should I take magnesium: to restore a nutrient that a large share of people are quietly short on.
Magnesium earns its reputation as a calming mineral through real physiology. It helps regulate the activity of GABA, the primary calming neurotransmitter that quiets the nervous system for sleep, and it acts as a natural antagonist at NMDA receptors, dialing down the excitatory glutamate signaling that keeps the brain switched on. It also supports the normal muscle relaxation that lets a tense, wired body settle down at the end of a long day.
Here is where we hold ourselves to the evidence rather than the marketing. A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis of magnesium for insomnia in older adults found sleep started about 17 minutes faster with supplementation than with placebo, though total sleep time did not improve significantly and the three trials were small and at moderate to high risk of bias (Mah and Pitre, 2021). A broader 2022 review reached a similar verdict: magnesium status is associated with better sleep, but the high-quality trial evidence is still thin.
Magnesium works differently than a sleeping pill. Rather than sedating you into unconsciousness, it supports the systems that make deep, restorative sleep possible. That distinction matters, and it sets honest expectations.
The honest read is that magnesium is a low-risk, well-tolerated way to support sleep, most reliably in people who are deficient to begin with, which as we covered is a large group. It is a foundation, layered on top of the non-negotiables: a consistent schedule, a dark cool room, and limiting late caffeine and screens.
Not all magnesium is created equal, and the form determines both how well you absorb it and how it treats your stomach. Cheaper forms like magnesium oxide are poorly absorbed and famous for causing loose stools. The chelated glycinate form solves both problems.
In this form, magnesium is bound to the amino acid glycine, which the gut absorbs efficiently and which is gentle on digestion. Glycine brings a bonus for sleep. It is itself an inhibitory neurotransmitter, and a study by Yamadera and colleagues found that glycine taken before bed improved subjective sleep quality and shortened the time to fall asleep by triggering a small drop in core body temperature, one of the body's natural sleep signals. A standard magnesium dose delivers less glycine than those isolated studies used, so we will keep the claim modest. Even so, the pairing is a sensible one for an evening supplement.
The two magnesium products we stock in the APEX PWR dispensary are among our top five sellers on a routine basis, and they are the same chelated compound in two delivery styles. Bisglycinate is simply the precise chemical name for magnesium glycinate. Which one is right comes down to how you prefer to take it.
Both use the well-absorbed, stomach-friendly glycinate form, so the choice is about preference, not quality. You can browse and order both through the APEX PWR Thorne dispensary at apexpwr.com/thorne.
We are not writing this from the outside. The team at APEX PWR is living the exact stage of life this article is about, and magnesium and sleep are a constant topic in the gym.
Coach Colin, our Director of Performance, is raising two young kids under the age of five. Anyone in that phase knows what a full night of sleep is worth.
Coach Nicole, who leads our women's strength coaching, has four kids spanning elementary school to high school, a schedule that runs from early mornings to late-night pickups.
Cofounders Caitlin and Jeron are parents to three kids aged five and under. Building a business and a young family at once is precisely the pressure that makes protecting sleep so important.
The common thread is that none of us can simply decide to sleep more hours. What we can do is make the hours count, and supporting the body's ability to reach deep, relaxed sleep is a meaningful part of that.
Many adults do well starting around 200 mg of elemental magnesium in the evening, roughly 30 to 60 minutes before bed. Some people split the total across the day. The tolerable upper limit for supplemental magnesium is 350 mg per day beyond what you get from food, so there is no benefit to megadosing. Because individual needs and medications vary, check with your physician before starting, especially if you have kidney concerns or take prescription medication. Then order the form you prefer through apexpwr.com/thorne to lock in your 25% lifetime discount.
Choose the powder or the capsule, and get both magnesium forms, plus every Thorne product, at 25% off for life through the APEX PWR dispensary.
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