CBD oil and sleep - The most important things at a glance!
- When sleeping, the brain switches off the body and thus makes maintenance work possible.
- Disturbed sleep causes significant health problems in the long run - both physical and mental.
- One of the main causes of insomnia is stress. It prevents people from falling asleep and makes it impossible to sleep through the night.
- The ingredients of the hemp plant help against both: stress and insomnia.
- In a good CBD oil, it is not only cannabidiol that ensures this, but also the aromatic terpenes.
What is sleep?
Sleep is a complicated thing - it's basically a miracle that we sleep at all. From that point of view, it can happen that it doesn't work.
Humans sleep through about a third of their lives.
When do we speak of a sleep disorder?
A distinction is made between different forms of disturbed sleep:1
- Sleep disorder means that a person has problems falling asleep and/or sleeping through the night at least three times a week and for more than a month
- Falling as leep disorder means that a patient takes longer than half an hour to fall asleep.
- Sleep-through disorder is when one wakes up at night and takes longer than half an hour to fall asleep again.
Why do we sleep at all?
Sleep means that the vital signs shift down a gear: Pulse, breathing rate, blood pressure and temperature are lowered, the muscles are switched off, and perception is reduced.
In prehistoric times, there was a simple reason for all this: as soon as the sun went down, Neanderthals could no longer see anything - unlike predators, who could still see their two-legged prey even in the deepest darkness. It was always better to find a sheltered place to sleep than to end up blindly wandering around as a midnight snack.
Why is sufficient sleep so important?
Sleep is something similar to nightly maintenance on the railway line: it keeps you out of the way of the morning rush hour. During this time, the visual purple in the retina regenerates, pollutants are removed and germs are rendered harmless. Sleep also plays an important role in learning and memory, because it is during this time that nerve cells form new connections with each other.
The need to sleep is so important that it is located deep down in the brain stem. The pons and formatio reticularis are ancient in the history of evolution. All the functions that are important for survival are concentrated right here: Breathing, circulation, pain, emotions and much more - including sleep.
Incidentally, it is a mistake to believe that the brain is inactive during sleep - quite the opposite. PET examinations have shown that its activity is even much higher during REM sleep than when awake. REM means Rapid Eye Movement. So there is a lot going on without us noticing.
Meanwhile, the muscles are switched off so that we don't do stupid things while sleepwalking. And that's a good thing: Anyone who wakes up in a sweat from a nightmare knows how extremely realistic this brain activity can be. Especially for such conditions, natural CBD oil has a calming effect.
How is sleep controlled?
The 24-hour sleep-wake rhythm is firmly anchored in the brain: in the brain stem and in the diencephalon, more precisely in the thalamus and hypothalamus. The latter is in direct contact with the eyes and reports when it gets dark outside - important for the circadian rhythm.
This day-night rhythm is mediated by the "sleep hormone" melatonin. Depending on the time of day, the pineal gland (epiphysis) in the diencephalon releases appropriate amounts of it into the blood. In the evening, an increased melatonin level makes us tired and ensures the natural need for sleep. With our ancestors, this worked much more directly - the pineal gland, as the "third eye", was itself still sensitive to light. Today, thanks to the mediating pigment melanopsin in the retina, it knows what's going on.
Messenger substances make the body calm down. Decreasing amounts of the stress hormones noradrenalin and dopamine shut down the sympathetic nervous system. As part of the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for alarm and stress. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for calm phases and everything that is done close to sleep: digestion, relaxation, sex, etc.2
Tip: CBD can also be an effective remedy against stress.
Illnesses and training make you tired? Messenger substances are also involved. Sporting activity releases adenosine, fever makes interleukin-1 mobile. Both shut down the body to regenerate: time for inspection and maintenance.
What do endocannabinoids have to do with sleep?
Adenosine is not only released during exercise, but also during normal sleep. It acts mainly in the basal forebrain, where its concentration increases due to the neurotransmitter anandamide. This, together with 2-AG (2-arachidonylglycerol) in the body's own
endocannabinoid system (ECS) controls many metabolic functions - including the sleep phase. Anandamide also makes us sleepy by binding to the CB1 receptors of the nucleus tegmentalis pedunculopontinus in the brain stem - let's call it PPT for short.
How does CBD affect sleep?
The longer anandamide works, the more effective sleep is. Accordingly, its degradation by the enzyme FAAH (fatty acid amide hydrolase) is important. This is where hemp comes into play: cannabidiol inhibits FAAH and keeps the anandamide level high. It also modulates the activity of the GABAA receptors involved in sleep.
But that is not all: THC and CBD mimic the effect of endocannabinoids by binding to the same receptors. If several of these messengers are present, they influence each other in their effect on the CB1 and CB2 receptors.
Surprise: Together with CBD, even the little bit of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in CBD oil (less than 0.2 percent is allowed) promotes sleep - and much better than too much of it as in marijuana. Presumably, the other cannabinoids and terpenes contained in full-spectrum CBD oil are also involved in this synergistic effect.
The entourage effect: all the active ingredients together work better than each one individually. As you can see even if there are only small amounts of them.
Where do sleep problems come from?
Organic, neurological and/or psychological causes lead to problems falling asleep and staying asleep. The most important of these are:3
- Stress. One of the most common reasons for too little sleep is work, household and children. Annoying colleagues and superiors, caring for relatives and being a parent never let you get any rest - let alone sleep. The worst is when chronic stress becomes a permanent condition.
- Depression. Typical of depressive moods is waking up early in the morning. Fall asleep and sleep through the night? That's not possible either. Patients restlessly putter around the flat while the rest of the family is still sleeping peacefully.
- Anxiety is the main thing that prevents them from falling asleep. The main culprit is the carousel of thoughts that prevents the patient from getting any rest and exacerbates the chronic stress.
- Pain ensures that the nightly rest quickly comes to an end. This is just as true for patients with cancer as for people with rheumatic diseases. Many chronic diseases are associated with plenty of pain.
- Melatonin deficiency affects almost everyone sooner or later. With age, the pineal gland calcifies and produces less and less sleep hormone. What is sometimes jokingly called senile bed-wetting therefore has a tangible organic cause.
- Drugs can considerably disturb sleep. These include amphetamines, antidepressants, beta blockers, glucocorticoids, thyroid hormones, antibiotics and the "pill". If taken for a long time, even sleeping pills often make sleep problems worse instead of fixing them.
- Hormones. Women are particularly plagued, because oestrogen & co. ride a rollercoaster every month from puberty to the menopause. Not to mention pregnancy and breastfeeding. It's no wonder that this affects the entire hormonal balance and, not least, sleep. But to be fair, we don't want to hide the fact that men's testosterone can also cause sleepless nights ;-).
- Caffeine and alcohol. It's a truism that coffee is a pick-me-up, and with a bit of bad luck, a cappuccino can last from late afternoon until late at night. One can argue about a beer in the evening to sleep better - but not about the fact that larger amounts of alcohol are quite counterproductive for sleep and health.
Misfortune seldom comes alone - that means that a few of these factors are pulling on your nerves together. The result: in the evening you lie in bed and the tireless spinning of your thoughts prevents you from falling asleep. If it does work and you wake up, the mental cinema starts all over again. Continuing to sleep is out of the question.
This is how the merry-go-round develops into a vicious circle. In the morning you are tired and exhausted, feel zombie-like and somehow function. This makes everything a little worse the next night. And on and on. It's no wonder that chronic stress causes anxiety and depression and, in the worst case, threatens burnout.
Stress can be the main cause of poor sleep. In our article we show you how CBD can help against stress. CBD oil can also have a natural effect here.
What happens when you don't get enough sleep?
Too little sleep has both short-term and long-term consequences4 - depending on how far you let the lack of sleep get. You can get the former under control with enough snoozing and compensating for sleep deficit. Short-term consequences include
- Fatigue
- Concentration problems
- Irritability
- Aggression
- Mood swings
- impaired short-term memory
- Reduced performance.
- chronic fatigue
- listlessness
- Weakening of the immune system
- increased susceptibility to infections
- Decrease in performance and organisational ability
- Weight gain
- increased risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes
- Mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, burnout.
Does CBD help to fall asleep?
The relaxing effect of cannabidiol alone can be immensely helpful in falling asleep. Clinical studies show that CBD oil could work. Many of them indicate that the cannabinoid helps against stress, depression and anxiety - an important prerequisite for finding peace and relaxation in the first place.5
For example, one study shows that CBD does not interfere with the course of sleep in healthy subjects - quite unlike anxiety-relieving drugs and antidepressants such as benzodiazepines and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as fluotexin and sertraline.6 In other words, cannabidiol enables what we have described above as natural sleep.
Even though there is much to be said for the efficacy of CBD for sleep, we warn against premature euphoria: we cannot yet speak of definitive scientific evidence. The number of test subjects in the clinical studies to date is far too small for that.7 CBD can do many things, but it is neither a miracle cure nor a panacea - just like all the other over-the-counter sleep problem solvers on the market.
In 2020, Australian researchers published the concept for a randomised, placebo-controlled double-blind study . This form of study is considered the gold standard of medical research. The study aims to clarify what CBD and THC do in patients with disturbed sleep. For this purpose, the activity of the regions of the brain will be monitored with EEG and MRI.8
CBD vs. classic sleeping pills: The gentle solution instead of high-dose drugs & substances
The sales figures of sleeping pills show how important healthy sleep is to many. Strong tablets simply knock out the waking state, with this being more akin to artificial sleep rather than natural sleep. The result of taking sleeping pills is not well studied and is in stark contrast to the real day-night rhythm - not to mention side effects such as daytime fatigue, headaches, dizziness or anxiety.
Z-drugs like zopiclone bind to the same receptors as the neurotransmitter gammaaminobutyric acid (GABA). The docking leads to a sedating effect. The big catch: the longer you take these sleeping pills, the more docking sites the body forms. And they all still have to be served.
Higher and higher doses are needed to fall asleep effectively. This is exactly why sleeping pills should only be taken for a limited period of time - "only as long as the sleeping problems persist", according to the package inserts.
Sleep problems are very persistent and do not disappear just like that. In the long run, Zopiclone & Co. therefore quickly become addictive. The treatment of sleep problems should therefore not be based on medication that does not combat the cause. Drug dependence is an extremely critical issue that should not be taken lightly. Simply stopping is not an option, because then withdrawal symptoms can actually occur. Therefore, sleeping pills have to be "phased out", i.e. gradually taken less and less of them until you finally get off them. Physiologically, this means that in the meantime, the amount of GABA receptors drops back to a normal level.
CBD oil sounds like a gentle and natural alternative:
- Cannabidiol doesn't just pop the fuse like a Z drug, but eliminates the causes of problems falling asleep and staying asleep. This is especially true for stress, anxiety and depression, which can be improved with the active ingredient from the cannabis plant.
- CBD has significantly fewer side effects than the usual sleep medications. Tiredness during the day, headaches or dizziness? These symptoms hardly ever occur with CBD oil, and as for anxiety, which is not entirely uncommon with sleeping pills, cannabidiol even helps against this.
- CDB is not addictive. Simply stopping and not taking it any more is no problem, at least no study has found anything to the contrary so far. This is also the big difference to the related THC, which has a similar effect but is not completely harmless in terms of addictive potential.
- CBD oil can be easily dosed as needed. No one has to handle whole, half or quarter sleeping pills. After a really bad day, for example, you can simply take 1-2 more drops of hemp oil.
In clinical studies, CBD has proven to be well tolerated and effective. In a high-quality full-spectrum CBD oil, terpenes are supposed to make an entourage effect possible and support the cannabidiol in its calming effect.
Also important: additionally optimise sleep
Sleep optimisation is possible with simple measures and is important to get a good night's sleep in the first place - if everything is totally off, the best CBD oil for falling asleep is of no help.
A small list of to-dos and no-gos:
- The right environment. Often, the bed and bedroom are the first thing to go wrong. Lying too softly, incoming light, disturbing noises, stale air, excessive heat are not conducive to healthy sleep. Often a new mattress, darkening and ventilation work wonders. Or make sure your cat has enough food (by the way: we have CBD for animals for stressed dogs and house pets that don't rest at night).
- Regularity. Sometimes you go to bed at seven in the evening, sometimes at four in the morning? Not a good habit. Our body is a creature of habit that copes much better with regular times for going to bed and getting up than with a new jet lag every day. See circadian rhythm.
- Change sleep rituals. It's best to prepare for sleep with the same routines every night. From showering after a round of jogging to brushing your teeth and putting on your pyjamas, to a warm glass of milk, reading or listening to music, a few push-ups or sit-ups.
- Bedroom? Sleep! The body has to get used to the fact that going to bed actually means going to sleep - and not another round of television or writing something on the laptop. This is absolute poison for healthy sleep, because the bright and cold moonlight imitation sends exactly the wrong signals to the brain.
- Need some entertainment? If you absolutely need some action: sex has an extremely positive effect on health and puts CBD oil for sleeping in the shade. CBD may even help you relax if you are too stressed.
Whether it's about sleep, stress or anxiety, with our full-spectrum CBD oil you can be sure to get all the goodness from the hemp flowers - and only the flowers! - from the flowers. Our patented extraction process ensures that all valuable terpenes are preserved alongside cannabinoids like CBD.
You won't notice any intoxicating effects - tetrahydrocannabiol (THC) is responsible for this in cannabis. This is only present in Lucky Hemp products in the minimal amounts permitted by law. That's why our flavours, flowers and CBD oils are completely legal and not suitable for smoking pot.
Dosage
If you want to try CBD oil to fall asleep, you have to find out your optimal dose yourself. Everyone reacts differently, and everyone has a different history of stress, lack of sleep & co. - and of course it also depends on which CBD product you use. Of course, the best is a top product like full-spectrum CBD oil from Lucky Hemp.
If you are undecided about which CBD oil to use, you can try one of our popular trial sets and see what works well for you. There you will find full-spectrum CBD oil with different concentrations, as well as CBD oil with lemon, vanilla or almond aroma for aromatherapy.
When you go to bed at night, it's best to start with a few drops of our 5% CBD oil or 10%CBD oil on your tongue and see how they work. If two or three drops do not have the desired effect, the dose can be increased slightly.
As soon as you have felt your way along, you will certainly get a good feeling for how many drops of CBD oil you need for sleeping. Or whether you need our particularly concentrated 20% CBD oil or 30% CBD oil. If the day was completely off again: Just take a little more than usual. If everything was great: take two less. Adding a little more is not a problem.
Conclusion
Sleep is as important as breathing and eating - insomnia ruins your health in the long run. Nowadays, stress is considered one of the most common causes of too little sleep. Lying in bed, the carousel of thoughts prevents you from falling asleep and sleeping through the night. Compared to sleeping pills, CBD products have a big advantage: they enable natural sleep, rarely have side effects and, above all, are not addictive.
Clinical studies are only at the beginning, so we cannot yet speak of definitive scientific evidence for the effect of cannabinoids on sleep. However, the findings and practical experience to date give reason to hope that CBD oil could improve sleep in many patients - perhaps in you too? Our high-quality CBD products are definitely worth a try. At Lucky Hemp you will find a whole range of CBD products. Guaranteed organic, guaranteed with all the valuable terpenes, low THC and above all easy to use.
FAQ - The most important practical tips about CDB oil and sleep
Can I sleep peacefully again with CBD oil?
It depends on a test - of course we can't guarantee anything. The causes of insomnia are far too varied and complex for that. In any case, cannabidiol should help you relax. A number of studies indicate that it can work against stress, anxiety and depression. These are the most common causes of insomnia.
Family and work are responsible for the stress, and at night the carousel of thoughts revolves around the experiences. The next day, you are tired and listless, and the exhaustion increases from evening to evening. If you cannot break this vicious circle, anxiety and depression are inevitable. Stress management is therefore an important prerequisite for better falling asleep and sleeping through the night. CBD oil may also help you to do this.
What can CBD oil do for sleep?
Important for CBD oil for sleeping: Studies show that it does not affect the natural sleep rhythm. This is different with sleeping pills and many medications. The most important thing is the relaxing effect, which helps to reduce stress. Once you have calmed down, you fall asleep better and stay asleep better. High-quality CBD oil also contains terpenes, which are said to have an entourage effect. This is said to increase the effect of pure cannabidiol.
Which CBD oil for sleep disorders?
There are many CBD oils. Usually, the CBD isolat extracted from the cannabis plant is dissolved in a carrier oil. In this way, a defined concentration of cannabidiol can be adjusted, for example 5%, 10% or 20%. As drops, they are easy to dose, and the higher the CBD concentration, the less you may need.
If you want to benefit additionally from the terpenes contained in hemp, you should go for a full-spectrum oil. At Lucky Hemp, we place special emphasis on preserving the important secondary plant compounds. If only because they are said to have an additional positive influence in CBD oil: they are said to enable the entourage effect, which can go beyond the effect of pure cannabidiol.
How much CBD oil do I need to use for sleeping?
Try it out. That's the only way to go, because every person is different. In other words, the causes of insomnia are different for everyone and everyone reacts in their own way to a remedy, be it sleeping pills or CBD oil.
It is best to start with a small dosage and see how well the drops work. If the amount is not enough, work your way up and increase the dose until you get the desired result.
Lucky Hemp has a range of full-spectrum CBD oils with different concentrations to choose from. Start with a low one and see how it works for you. Or take one of our popular trial sets with different oils, then you have the free choice.
Sources, links and further reading
(1) Karna, B.; Gupta, V. Sleep Disorder. In StatPearls; StatPearls Publishing: Treasure Island (FL), 2021.
(2) Murillo-Rodriguez, E.; Arias-Carrion, O.; Zavala-Garcia, A.; Sarro-Ramirez, A.; Huitron-Resendiz, S.; Arankowsky-Sandoval, G. Basic Sleep Mechanisms: An Integrative Review .Cent Nerv Syst Agents Med Chem 2012, 12 (1), 38-54. https://doi.org/10.2174/187152412800229107.
(3) Nieber, K. Sleep disorders: When drugs keep you awake https://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/ausgabe-362010/wenn-medikamente-wach-halten/ (accessed 2021 -07 -22).
(4) Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem; Colten, H. R., Altevogt, B. M., Eds; The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health; National Academies Press (US): Washington (DC), 2006.
(5) Babson, K. A.; Sottile, J.; Morabito, D. Cannabis, Cannabinoids, and Sleep: A Review of the Literature. Curr Psychiatry Rep 2017, 19 (4), 23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-017-0775-9.
(6) Linares, I. M.; Zuardi, A. W.; Pereira, L. C.; Queiroz, R. H.; Mechoulam, R.; Guimarães, F. S.; Crippa, J. A. Cannabidiol Presents an Inverted U-Shaped Dose-Response Curve in a Simulated Public Speaking Test. Braz J Psychiatry 2019, 41 (1), 9-14. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2017-0015.
(7) Suraev, A. S.; Marshall, N. S.; Vandrey, R.; McCartney, D.; Benson, M. J.; McGregor, I. S.; Grunstein, R. R.; Hoyos, C. M. Cannabinoid Therapies in the Management of Sleep Disorders: A Systematic Review of Preclinical and Clinical Studies. Sleep Med Rev 2020, 53, 101339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2020.101339.
(8) Suraev, A.; Grunstein, R. R.; Marshall, N. S.; D'Rozario, A. L.; Gordon, C. J.; Bartlett, D. J.; Wong, K.; Yee, B. J.; Vandrey, R.; Irwin, C.; Arnold, J. C.; McGregor, I. S.; Hoyos, C. M. Cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) for Chronic Insomnia Disorder ("CANSLEEP" Trial): Protocol for a Randomised, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blinded, Proof-of-Concept Trial. BMJ Open 2020, 10 (5), e034421. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034421.
