Madmick said:
Well, all those prove is that oral Mg administration would probably help if I had RLS or was sleep-deprived (it doesn't indicate taking Mg would prevent sleep-deprivation, only mitigate the negative effects of it).
Well that depends. First of all, the second study is far from perfect. But if you accept their results, one could ask the question, can the non sleep deprived group increase their exercise capacity and still see no decline in tolerance with Mg supplementation. That would have been more applicable, especially to athletes, for which ZMA was targeted.
Second, the second study may be interesting because if EEG data was presented, I would not be surprised to see an increase in REM sleep, most RLS occurs in the awake to sleep stages, and is least active in REM sleep, partially because paralysis occurs in the major muscle groups.
Also, many people report having more vivid dreams while using ZMA, which is clearly a sign of heightened brain activity, which is synomonous with REM sleep.
That could be a verly likely cause for the increased sleep efficiency reported in the study, and would be very easy to determine if EEG data was measured.
And a correlation between the anecdotal evidence of ZMA and the measured results of the study could be drawn, for even non RLS subjects.
Of course this would just be easier if more studies included normal healthy people who dont suffer any sleep disorders or health problems. But that isnt to glamorous when you are trying to get published so you can pad your resume. Mg really isnt the hot thing to study I would assume.
So there are plenty of other studies showing links between Mg and sleep, but they are done on subjects ranging from post op surgery patients, to post menstrual women. Which are even far less applicable.
I really didnt mean to imply those studies proved anything, just that they could have relevant results.
