The Best Magnesium Supplements for Sleep, Ranked

Ranked for one job — sleep — not marketing. The scoring: sleep-specific human evidence, tolerability at bedtime, and price per effective dose.

1. Magnesium Glycinate (bisglycinate) — the clear pick

• Sleep evidence: the best of any form (modest, consistent trial effects on sleep quality — full analysis)
• Tolerance: excellent — the gentlest commonly available form
• Price: ★★★★☆ — reasonable; how to pick an honest brand
• Dose: 200–400 mg elemental, nightly, timed like this

2. Magnesium Taurate — the quiet runner-up

• Sleep evidence: thin directly, but taurate has plausible calming-adjacent signals and good tolerability
• Tolerance: very good
• Price: ★★★☆☆
• Honest verdict: a fine Plan B if glycinate disagrees with you, though it lacks glycinate’s trial base.

3. Magnesium Threonate — premium price, sleep-neutral

• Sleep evidence: essentially none specific to sleep; its story is cognition (mostly animal data — our honest takedown)
• Price per mg elemental: the worst on the shelf
• Verdict: don’t buy it for sleep.

Skip entirely

• Magnesium oxide — cheap, ~4% absorption; it’s a laxative that occasionally masquerades as a supplement
• “Blended” formulas — oxide hidden behind a glycinate label (“glycinate buffered with oxide”) — read the back panel
• Citrate as a bedtime choice — well-absorbed but the laxative edge makes it a daytime form at best

Bottom line

For sleep: glycinate, 200–400 mg, tested brand, consistent nights. Everything else is either a specialist tool or a marketing story. Full context in the master comparison.