Will CBD Help Me Sleep

We’ve all had occasional nights where we just don’t sleep well.  That’s to be expected from time to time.  But around 70 million people suffer from insomnia or some other sleep disorder.  The fact that you’re reading this article suggests you may be one of them or you know someone who is, and you’re looking for solutions.

Will CBD help you sleep?  CBD can be very helpful in improving sleep for people who suffer from insomnia caused by anxiety, stress, and pain.  It may also help reestablish healthy sleep patterns in people who have gone so long without normal sleep habits that their body can’t seem to get into a decent sleep-wake pattern.

The most common causes of insomnia are chronic anxiety, stress, and pain.  People who live with any one of these conditions for an extended period of time are likely to experience disturbances in their sleep patterns and eventually develop insomnia.  The sleeping troubles are both in the quality of sleep they experience and the length of time they are able to sleep for consistently.  Because CBD is very effective at calming our minds and reducing our levels of stress, anxiety, and pain it is very likely to be able to help you with achieving better sleep if these conditions are what is causing you to not sleep well.  In addition, taking CBD in the morning can give you a subtle boost in energy throughout the day.  This extra boost in energy may help you reestablish a pattern of sleep time and awake time.  We’ll look at each of these points in a little more detail below.

How does CBD reduce anxiety and stress

As with many issues relating to CBD treatment, there haven’t been a lot of robust medical studies involving humans.  But there are some good studies out there that provide a glimpse into how CBD can help reduce anxiety and stress.  First of all, it has been reported that CBD treatment actually works very quickly to help relieve anxiety and stress.  Even quicker than many pharmaceutical medications that must be prescribed by your doctor.  These medications are often referred to as antidepressants or SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors.)  They work by preventing brain tissue from absorbing serotonin which provides more serotonin in an area called the synaptic space.  Serotonin is a critical chemical or neurotransmitter in the brain that helps regulate our mood, social behavior, sleep, memory, and more.  Having more serotonin in the synaptic space helps us feel better.

It is believed CBD helps fight anxiety and stress by enhancing serotonin signaling in the brain.  This likely is not accomplished in the same way as SSRIs (by blocking the re-absorption of serotonin) however.  The reason for this belief is that it works much faster than SSRIs.

Another common symptom in people struggling with anxiety is a small hippocampus in the brain.  The hippocampus is a region of the brain that is responsible for memory and cognition.  For some reason, when patients who are struggling with anxiety and severe stress have a brain scan done, they tend to have smaller hippocampus regions.  Successful treatments for these disorders tend to produce or regenerate new neurons in this same region of the brain.  Some animal studies have shown that when CBD is administered over an extended period of time, it leads to regeneration of neurons in the hippocampus.  SSRIs may do the same thing.

One thing that SSRIs are known to do is produce suicidal thoughts and tendencies in some patients.  This can be very dangerous to the health of the patient.  CBD has not been reported to produce such thoughts or tendencies.  So while CBD and SSRIs seem to produce similar results, the fact that CBD works faster and doesn’t produce self-destructive thoughts and actions suggests that CBD probably works in a slightly different way that may be safer to the person receiving treatment.

How does CBD reduce pain

CBD has been proven to be a very effective compound for reducing chronic pain.  In fact, in 2005 Canada approved CBD treatment for central neuropathic pain associated with multiple sclerosis.  Then in 2007 Canada approved similar treatment for pain associated with cancer.  Several studies have shown CBD to be helpful with pain from rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.  And in 2006 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved advanced clinical trials for controlling pain in cancer patients with CBD.  All of this is evidence that CBD is effective at controlling pain.

But how does it work?  CBD is known to interact with receptors in the body called CB1 and CB2.  Receptors can be described as small 3 dimensional proteins on the outside of cells.  When they are activated they send a signal inside the cell and initiate some kind of a response depending on the signal received.  CBD reacts much more strongly with CB2 than CB1 but it does affect both.  CB2 receptors are distributed throughout many kinds of cells in the body and they tend to have influence over reducing pain and inflammation.  So when CBD activates CB2 you experience reduced pain and inflammation, both things that can help you sleep better and longer.

How can CBD calm you down and give you an energy boost

I’ll be honest, it isn’t really clear how CBD boosts energy.  It affects different people in different ways.  Some people report that CBD makes them feel a little sleepy.  But many people report that it helps them feel more awake.  One of the tricks to beating insomnia is retraining your body to have consistent times for being awake and times for going to sleep.  This can be really difficult to reestablish if you’re not getting good sleep and therefore feel tired all the time.  But if CBD helps you to feel more awake, then you should consider taking it in the morning (or at the beginning of your desired awake time) to help you feel more awake during the day.  Over a period of time, this could help retrain your body to get into a pattern that will help you sleep more consistently.  There really isn’t much to lose by trying it.

Additional tips for overcoming insomnia

While CBD can be very helpful in overcoming insomnia, there are other things we can do that can also be effective in beating insomnia.  Some are harder than others but when you’re suffering from insomnia you’ll likely try just about anything.

• Don’t take naps
• Don’t watch TV, use a tablet, or stare at your phone within several hours of going to bed
• Don’t get into bed until you’re feeling tired
• Don’t eat or drink right before going to bed
• Keep your bedroom dark and cool
• Get regular exercise, but not right before going to bed
• Establish a pattern of going to bed and getting up at the same time every night (even on weekends)

I wish you all the best in your struggle to get back to a normal sleep pattern.  CBD is certainly worth a try if you feel like you’ve tried everything else.  If you’d be so kind, please let us know what your experience has been with CBD.  We’d love to hear how it’s helped you.  And it may help others who are struggling with the same problem.