Do These Sleep Supplements Actually Work? (magnesium, apigenin, and theanine) - Rhonda Patrick

Okay. So we're going to go into another deepish dive question that has to do with sleep. Kathleen says, hi, Rhonda. Thank you for your recent Alaquat where you updated us on your nutrition diet blueprint and your updated supplement regimen. You didn't say anything about nighttime supplements for sleep. Do you have a supplement stack you take for sleep? And what do you think about Andrew Huberman's supplement stack for sleep? Thank you so much. Okay. So the first part of this question, do you have a supplement stack you take for sleep? I do not. I used to take melatonin for my night terrors, but I have stopped taking it and my night terrors have really not come back any more than they were with melatonin. So I didn't feel like I really needed it.

My sleep stack is essentially a sauna or a hot tub 2 to 3 hours before I go to bed, and that's it. That's all I need. There's no other supplements that I take, or there's nothing that has convinced me that's going to be more effective than actual heat stress. And I did put out a video, you guys saw probably how How heat stress from the sauna or hot tub affects particularly slow-wave sleep, but even sleep in general. So if you guys haven't seen that, check it out. It's a really short 10-minute video. So let's talk a little bit about Sleep Stack from Dr. Huberman, which, by the way, I have no problem with.

So it's 145 milligrams of magnesium threonate or 200 milligrams of magnesium bisglycinate, 500 milligrams of apigenin, 100 to 400 milligrams of theanine, and then 3 to 4 nights a week, there's some glycine and GABA. I did talk about some of this in a previous Q&A, Q&A number 29, but I'll go ahead and sort of recap. The magnesium threonate for sleep, there's been 2 clinical trials looking at sleep with magnesium threonate. The daily dose was about 1,500 to 2,000 milligrams, so quite high. It was a 12-week sleep-focused trial. Both of these were industry-led, so the company that made magnesium threonate was sponsoring the study, which, you know, there's a potential conflict of interest there, right? And there's also one animal study, again, that was also industry-led as well.

So, there's really just limited evidence that magnesium threonate reaches the brain and affects the brain, really improves, has any effect on cognitive tests. We've talked about this in the past. The one study that's shown it had to pool all the tests together to get statistical significance. Maybe it's just the study was underpowered. I think that's a big possibility, but they did kind of manipulate the data a little bit to kind of make it— seem like it'd affect cognitive tests, which, again, it just may be that there's a lack of evidence, that studies are underpowered. I think, you know, there's a potential strong placebo effect as well. I don't think there's enough evidence to support that magnesium threonate is effective at improving sleep.

I do think that magnesium threonate is a good source of magnesium. 40% of the population has inadequate magnesium intake. So therefore, it could be the source that you use. I take magnesium glycinate, but if you're wanting to take magnesium threonate, I think that's fine. Making sure you don't have any negative gut effects, of course, when you get up to those 1,500, 2,000 milligram doses is one potential concern. I don't really see any problem with taking it, but again, just strictly looking at the evidence in a very scientific, you know, way, I would say it's not really supported by evidence yet. It's still kind of— we need more evidence to really make a statement that magnesium threonate will improve sleep. That doesn't mean that it doesn't.

It just means we don't have all the evidence to suggest it does. So apigenin, so that's something that is found in chamomile tea. There's really scarce data on apigenin's effects on improving sleep. There's really no clinical studies directly evaluating apigenin. It's mostly looking at chamomile tea. There was a cross-sectional study that was done in Italian adults looking at a diet rich in apigenin, and they did have better sleep quality, but there's a ton of confounding factors there. So take that with a grain of salt. There have been some small clinical trials looking at chamomile, which, again, contains apigenin, and it was shown to be moderately effective in improving subjective sleep compared to placebo. So in other words, the people taking it felt like their sleep was improved.

There's just no— there's, like, lack of evidence on actual apigenin supplements. So potential, you know, could it work? Could the chamomile tea, is it the hot liquid that plays a role in improving sleep because it was the tea study that showed them? We don't know, right? Like, there's other things in the chamomile tea and, you know, so I would say there's not strong evidence supporting a supplement for apigenin improving sleep, but I do think there could be some indication that chamomile tea could have a beneficial effect. Whether or not you can streamline everything down and narrow it and say, Aha, it's the apigenin in the chamomile tea, is up for debate because there's a lot of things going on there, right?

It's hot tea, and hot things also can have a sort of effect on helping with sleep and relaxation. And again, there's other compounds in chamomile as well. So again, just, I don't think it's harmful, and I certainly, you know, it seems pretty benign, but there's not a lot of strong science to support it yet. L-theanine, I say, is probably the one with the strongest evidence. So there was one phase 2 randomized controlled trial that showed improved sleep efficiency in boys with autism. There's been 2 phase 2 randomized controlled trials showing improvement in subjective sleep quality in middle-aged adults with a daily intake of 200 to 900 milligrams of L-theanine.

There was a small open-label study, which doesn't have a placebo, so take it with a grain of salt, but also improved sleep quality in patients with Okay. Depression and schizophrenia. Further large— larger phase 3 studies that are needed. I think they haven't been done yet, but they're needed to validate these studies. I think the evidence for L-theanine, its effectiveness in improving sleep, is stronger than magnesium threonate and apigenin, as I mentioned. So, yeah, I don't see any problem with taking that sleep stack. That's sort of just a sort of in depth breakdown of the science behind those particular supplements. Again, I think nothing is going to compare to heat stress when it comes to improving sleep.

I think the evidence is stronger, but, you know, we just may not have enough high-quality evidence out there to show that these compounds are doing much yet. Can magnesium threonate be taken on a long-term basis without adverse effects? I don't know that there's been any studies looking at really long-term high-dose magnesium. I think that, you know, at a relatively normal dose, probably should be fine. But I think most of the magnesium threonate is staying in circulation. You know, it's up for debate on how much really gets into the brain in humans. So, so that's, you know, again, it's one of those things where we just, we just don't have the evidence. And I do think that magnesium threonate is a fine source of magnesium.

I, I supplement with about 130 milligrams of magnesium glycinate, but I think, you know, if you want to take magnesium threonate, I think that's, that's fine. Mostly you just want to avoid magnesium oxide. Matt is saying that Dr. Huberman also recommends myo-inositol, GABA, and glycine for sleep. I haven't looked in depth for sleep. I'll say GABA does not cross the blood-brain barrier. So, you know, it's interesting, like maybe there's a potential effect on the gut microbiome through the vagal nerve because GABA can have an effect on enteric neurons in the gut, and this could then stimulate the vagal nerve and communicate to the brain for a sort of relax effect.

But yeah, I didn't look into depth into those for sleep, so that could be something for next time if someone wants to submit that question. Why should we avoid magnesium oxide or dioxide? It's just not very bioavailable. It's like, it's the one form of magnesium that's just not bioavailable. Magnesium citrate, magnesium malate, magnesium glycinate, magnesium bisglycinate, magnesium threonate, they're all pretty bioavailable. So I think those are all pretty reasonable choices for magnesium supplementation.