Since legal cannabis entered the medical scene, a cascade of doubts, opinions and preconceptions flooded the online world. This made it difficult for people to take informed and safe decisions. Luckily, innovative approaches towards research are allowing more and more consumers to learn what’s the best treatment for their ailment.
A lot of conjecture has been going around about the relation between CBD and insomnia. Although not much has been said by the FDA< a lot of users and our customers report to using CBD to help with sleeping. Let’s check out what the latest research has to say.
WHAT'S INSOMNIA?
Insomnia is the most common and universally reported sleep disorder. According to the American Sleep Association, it can be defined as “difficulty falling or staying asleep”. It can affect anyone regardless of their age, gender or condition.
Insomnia can appear for a short period of time, suchs as a few days or weeks, or become chronic and last for months. Reports have found that over 10% of the American population suffers from long-term insomnia, while a 30% have reported experiencing it occasionally.
Adverse Effects from Staying up?
Proper sleep is crucial for the normal functioning of our body and mind. A lack of good sleeping habits can have extremely negative impacts to our health. Adults require between 7 and 9 hours of sleep and should not have long periods sleeping under 6 hours. Children can require up to 9-10 hours of daily sleep and, babies even more so.
As shown by several studies, the consequences not getting enough sleep can affect the functionality of almost every part of our organism, in both short and long-term. The first effect can be seen in the central nervous system. A lack of a good night’s rest can cause us to feel irritable and depressed. It can make us have trouble concentrating and learning new things. A lack of sleep can have us experiencing an overall loss of creativity and motivation.
Lack of Sleep Affecting Other Areas
Your immune system can be compromised from not sleeping enough. The immune system, responsible for protecting us from viruses, bacteria and other types of harmful infection. As we loose sleep, our body’s defense mechanism becomes weakened and debilitated, allowing our body to be affected by the dangerous invaders around us.
There’s also a direct relation between lack of sleep and obesity. Since sleep is crucial for the proper performance of the glandules that release the hormones related to hunger and feeling full, a lack of proper sleep can cause overweight and higher levels of insulin. This can even take us a step closer to type 2 diabetes.
People who don’t get enough sleep can also be prone to heart disease. Sleep deprivation can increase heart-rate and blood pressure, weakening our cardiovascular system. It also increases our chances of heart stroke and hypertension.
Lower Sex Drive
Bad sleep has also been associated with poor hormone production, lowered sex drive and fertility, and the possibility of contracting respiratory diseases.
These are not just personal issues, since a sleep deprived individual can have serious consequences in public safety. A persons perception and judgement can also be impaired, as evidence by the more than 6000 car crashes are caused every year by drowsy drivers.
All in all, someone who is not getting enough sleep can be a menace to both themselves and those around them.
What causes insomnia?
There’s a vast number of reasons why a person can be found suffering from insomnia. The dreaded ailment can come as an isolated condition, which is referred to as “primary insomnia”, or as a consequence of another malady, which is called “secondary insomnia”. The first can be triggered by physical or emotional distress. It can also be a shift in a balanced sleeping schedule, like jet lag, for instance.
The latter, however, can have multiple causes. Medical conditions like heart and lung diseases can take their toll on proper sleep. Chronic pain is also listed amongst one of the main causes of insomnia, but the list is topped by anxiety and depression. There’s also medicines which can alter normal sleeping patterns as one of their side-effects. An unmeasured management of caffeine consumption can be a cause of bad sleep as well.
HOW CAN CBD OIL HELP WITH SLEEP?
Most people out there have heard that CBD is a particular form of cannabinoid found in cannabis. It is sometimes found with its better-known sibling, THC (famous for being responsible of marijuana’s “high” effect) and over 80 other cannabinoids with health properties of their own. But not everyone is aware that all of us humans, and even animals have naturally occurring cannabinoids happening in our bodies. These type of molecules are called endocannabinoids and they interact with our endocannabinoid system, by combining with special receptor called “endocannabinoid receptors”.
The endocannabinoid system is responsible for controlling our homeostatic functions. It is proper functioning and extremely influential to our mood, appetite, sleeping patterns and to our overall sense of well-being. CBD might help us notice a difference in our dreams too.
Our endocannabinoid receptors can also bind with externally generated forms of cannabinoids. This can be affected by CBD, which is a naturally occurring cannabinoid coming from the cannabis plant.
Efficiency of CBD for Insomnia
Several studies have been done to prove the efficiency of CBD as an aid for achieving good sleep. Although most testing so far has been done in lab rats (who also have endocannabinoid systems), empirical evidence from daily users held against these studies shows very promising indications that the compound can be effective in treating sleep conditions.
CBD can bind with our receptors organically, so it has the ability to alter our body’s state and condition. Of the many positive effects the compound has been found to produce in our organism, including anti-inflammatory and pain-reducing properties. One of its main advantages is a substantial decrease in anxiety and anxious behavior.
Given that anxiety is one of the main causes for chronic and acute insomnia, CBD has been shown to be effective for increasing sleeping time, improving sleep quality, and helping patients achieve sleep more easily.
CBD stabilized sleeping patterns
A proper night sleep is crucial for our organism to be at its fullest capacity. CBD’s effectiveness in helping patients achieve a good night’s sleep is reflected in the patient’s performance during the daytime. But insomnia’s symptoms don’t end in our bedroom. People suffering from such condition will most likely also experiment daytime drowsiness, heaviness and an inability to focus or concentrate. CBD’s advantages as a sleeping aid can help consumers enjoy of better rested mornings and more productive afternoons.
CBD’s interaction with the body is not entirely linear. Although it’s an effective tool for achieving better sleep, it has also been found that CBD can also promote alertness during the day. Though this might sound contradictory at first glance, it can be easily understood if pointed out that CBD does not work in the immediate fashion regular sleeping medication does. It promotes and stimulates our endocannabinoid system. This interacts with proteins and other chemicals in our brains. It's not just helping us sleep better but improving our entire sleep-wake cycle, allowing us to perform at our fullest capacity.