A Guide To Using CBD For Sleep
Experts recommend adults sleep between seven to nine hours each night in order to ensure they feel well-rested and have energy for the next day. A good night’s sleep also has a proven impact on memory formation, helping grow and repair muscle and tissue, and also prevent sickness.
Falling asleep or staying asleep can be really difficult for certain types of sleepers, not to mention all of the outside factors that can affect a good night's rest. However,you’ll need to determine the right CBD dosage.
Many sleep aids, such as over-the-counter medications and prescriptions, are both risky and not as effective as one would hope. One increasingly popular strategy for sleeping better is taking cannabidiol, commonly known as CBD, which is a phytocannabinoid that comes from the hemp plant, Cannabis Sativa.
Understanding Chronic Sleeplessness
Chronic sleeplessness has detrimental consequences to the body. It can increase redness and swelling, weaken the immune system, and elevate the risk for other health conditions. These include, but not limited to the following:
- Stroke
- Hypertension
- Depression
- Heart issues
- Weight gain and weight loss
- Other health issues associated with mental health conditions
CBD has been used as a remedy for sleep issues for thousands of years. Hemp was historically considered to be a sedative. Today, more and more research is being conducted examining the relationship between CBD and its effect on the central nervous system.
Reasons For Troubled Sleeping
Having a bad night’s sleep completely affects energy and focus for the next day. Studies have shown that CBD can alleviate the symptoms of several sleep disorders, helping you get a much-deserved good night’s rest.
Certain environmental factors, such as an uncomfortable sleeping area or loud noises, can impact the ability to get a solid night’s rest. Caffeine consumption, especially later in the day, can also negatively impact falling asleep.
There are a wide variety of conditions that fall into the category of being a sleep condition, such as REM sleep behavior. Poor sleep quality can become a chronic condition when it happens at least three nights a week for three months or more.
For example, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is a sleep disorder in which someone acts out vivid, often unpleasant dreams with vocal sounds and sudden arm and leg movements. This is sometimes referred to as dream-enacting behavior.
Having stress and tension is also known to have a negative effect on the ability to fall and stay asleep. Excessive worry and fear can make it difficult to mentally and physically relax and allow yourself to drift off into slumber throughout the entire night.
Sleep deprivation can also intensify with stress. As the lack of sleep causes tension, it then causes an additional lack of sleep. It is an exhausting cycle that can be hard to break.
CBD helps soothe stress and tension, maintain a healthy sleep schedule, and calm your body and mind using holistic and non-psychoactive properties.
Using CBD To Promote Sleep
When you begin your journey using CBD, keep in mind that it takes one to two weeks for results to begin to show. Studies have shown that a dosage of 160mg of CBD has resulted in increased sleep duration.
Aside from gummies, you can also take CBD oil to help promote rest, similar to 3mg of melatonin, passion flower, chamomile, and lemon balm. While a lighter dosage of CBD can act as an awakening agent, a larger dose acts as a sedative. Cortisol, the stress hormone in the body, usually is at its peak in the morning.
For those who struggle with poor sleep health, their cortisol levels are more likely to be at their highest at night, resulting in multiple sleep disturbances. After taking CBD, research participants' cortisol levels went down, suggesting a correlation between CBD usage and sedative effects in the body.
It is important to remember that CBD, although an incredibly helpful tool, is not a band-aid that cures sleep problems on its own. Other factors go into ensuring quality rest, and taking those into consideration along with CBD is the best methodology for not only going to sleep but actually staying asleep.
Limiting engagement with electronic devices before bed, taking some time to decompress, listening to relaxing music, daily exercise, and eating a balanced diet are all natural sleep aids.
This will help to not think of CBD as sleep medicine, but rather as an alternative natural method to help soothe feelings of stress and tension that may delay or interrupt the natural cycle of sleep.
How Does CBD Work To Help Sleep?
The endocannabinoid system plays a role in maintaining regularity in various body functions, ranging from mood, appetite, sleep, and circadian rhythms. Inside the endocannabinoid system is a network of cannabinoid receptors that exist in the brain and central nervous system.
Upon entering the system, cannabinoids attach to these receptors and have a variety of effects. Research suggests that CBD may interact with specific receptors that can affect the sleep/wake cycle. So, if you have trouble sleeping, CBD can help by being a safe, non-habit-forming, natural alternative to try.
CBD works with the endocannabinoid system inside the body, which is an extensive system with elements that are still being discovered to this day.
CBD is also commonly used for soothing redness and tension, two factors that can greatly detriment achieving a night of restful sleep. The reduction of these symptoms, though CBD can help improve the overall sleep quality.
Using a small dosage of CBD In the morning has shown to promote levels of wakefulness. CBD lessens stress in the mind and body through interaction with the brain receptors that produce serotonin, the chemical that creates happiness.
The soothing effects lead to a better mood and overall wellness in your body. This leads to the positive experience of feeling mentally aware, mentally alert, and the ability to focus your energy.
Alleviating the stress and improving the feelings of alertness that come difficult with poor sleep health can help create a better experience.
In Conclusion
Sleep is an incredibly vital function to the nervous system that contributes significantly to the brain and body homeostasis, energy levels, cognitive ability, and other key functions.
By helping with muscle relaxation, increasing feelings of calm, and decreasing acute discomfort, CBD can aid in getting a better and more consistent night’s rest.
CBD’s reduction of stress and tension are two absolute key factors in its overall impact on sleep relief and aid. By using it regularly in conjunction with other healthy bedtime habits, you are setting yourself up for a successful, blissful, and dreamy snooze.
While there is still much more scientific research that needs to be conducted on the relationship between CBD usage and sleep, current studies show that CBD is an anxiolytic -- which means it can reduce symptoms of stress and creates a calming essence within. It also helps relax the body’s muscles.
Hopefully, the effects of CBD on sleep quality and regulation will continue to be studied and explored. There is much to be gained from this information, including both valuable scientific data and sleep health.
At Peels, our CBD oil is tested by independent third-party labs for quality and safety purposes. Our products are molecularly identical to CBD produced by the cannabis plant but are made from terpenes in orange peels. This means that because the best CBD oil is not made from hemp or cannabis ingredients.
In fact, there is a guaranteed zero tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content in our CBD products while still delivering the same beneficial holistic, non-psychoactive effects without the presence of heavy metals, molds, and pesticides.
Being THC-free, Peels CBD oil for sleep also does not have any unwanted side effects that would lead to potential dependency or risk of abuse. There is a lack of scientific research studying the effects of CBD and sleep, but the studies that have been conducted suggest that CBD can help with a variety of sleep issues, along with improving sleep and easing feelings of stress.
Sources:
National Sleep Foundation How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? | Sleep Foundation
Cannabidiol In Anxiety And Sleep: A Large Case Series | The Permanente Journal
Cannabis, Endocannabinoids And Sleep | Frontiers In Molecular Neuroscience