Good sleeping is essential if we want to keep functioning. Sleep helps us get the rest we need, both physically and mentally. But what if you’re having trouble sleeping? How do you tackle lying awake, tossing and turning, mulling over the events of the day, or waking up in the middle of the night? Perhaps cannabis can be an option. While THC has potential, CBD can help you sleep better, too – without getting high.
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Why Poor Sleeping Quality Is A Problem
We all have nights in which sleep just won’t come. As the hours seem to creep by, you lie awake feeling annoyed with yourself. How can you feel so tired and yet fail to doze off? Sleep can be a mystery sometimes. However, although there’s no harm in an occasional night of lousy sleeping, chronic lack of sleep can become a real problem.
Various factors can contribute to sleeping problems:
- Body factors, including Restless Legs Syndrome of chronic pain;
- Use of stimulants such as caffeine of alcohol;
- Medication that affects sleep cycles;
- Mental factors, including stress, PTSD, anxiety, or depression;
- Situational factors including noise, a bad mattress, or too much light.
Even though regular sleep medication usually works, it often comes with unpleasant side-effects, which can become problematic in the long run. Physical and mental tolerance set in, gradually reducing their effectiveness. Interestingly, although certain marijuana strains can be uplifting and help combat fatigue, cannabis is also known as a natural means to improve quality of sleep (kush strains in particular).
The best-known cannabis compounds involved are THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol); both of which are cannabinoids with their own potential to improve sleep. So can we use weed, and its active components THC and CBD in particular, to help us sleep better at night?
How CBD Can Help Us Sleep Better
If we consider the causes of poor quality of sleep listed above, the properties of CBD seems a pretty good match at first sight. CBD has soothing as well as analgesic properties, and moreover, it can directly affect sleep and waking cycles. A growing body of scientific evidence is uncovering CBD’s potential for better sleeping. Many insmoniacs will appreciate CBD’s added benefit: it is not psychoactive. That means it does not rpdoce a high, leaving you fresh and fully rested when you wake up in the morning.
If anxiety is the root of your sleeping problems, CBD could help ease your mind, as a 2019 study demonstrated. The study involved 72 subjects, 25 of whom had trouble sleeping while 47 experienced anxiety. All participants were given a daily dose of 25mg CBD. Over the course of the first month, 79.2% of subjects reported reduced anxiety, whereas 66.7% noticed their quality of sleep improved.
Sleep And Stress
Having trouble sleeping is often related to stress and disruption of daily life. This could be due to blood levels of cortisol, an important stress hormone. Episodes of stress, tension, and anxiety are usually marked by raised cortisol levels, which usually decline at night and peak in the morning. Sleeping problems are often characterised by raised cortisol levels throughout the night. This can explain why you keep waking up while you should be asleep.
The study mentioned above also demonstrated that CBD can affect cortisol levels, which helps explain how it can help people sleep better. Participants received 300 or 600mg CBD Oil, which turned out to inhibit cortisol release. This is one of the reasons for the soothing capacity of cannabidiol. Participants were followed over a three-month period, during which the lower dose proved most effective for treating anxiety, whereas higher dosages proved more beneficial for sleeping problems.
How THC Affects Sleep
Cannabis contains a large number of different cannabinoids, of which THC is the most famous. This compound can help improve sleep by its calming properties as research shows. This explains how weed can help people fall asleep more easily as well as more soundly. People affected by pain also report sleeping better after consuming high-THC cannabis strains, because the pain doesn’t wake them up. THC can also offer relief for PTSD related sleeping problems.
Interestingly, certain cannabis strains can boost energy levels and help counter tiredness rather than promote sleep. You can read all about this in our special blog on weed against fatigue, which lists some potent uplifting strains we recommend for such cases.
You may also want to check our blog on our best marijuana strains for a good night’s sleep. Here, you’ll find a selection of cannabis seeds to help any grower grow weed to help them sleep, usually due to their high THC content.
Sleep Better With CBD
As we have seen, CBD can help people sleep better, as can THC, but cannabis has more in store when it comes to quality shuteye. The plant contains many other ingredients to help us relax, including CBG, and terpenes such as myrcene and linalool. If you want to improve your quality of sleep, cannabis with either CBD or THC, or both, could be worth a shot. Indica strains with kush genetics are particularly recommended for their sleep inducing qualities. No matter what, though, anyone looking for great cannabis to sleep better is bound to succeed with our online collection of premium seeds.
However, even if you’re not looking to use cannabis, you could still opt for CBD Oil or delicious CBD edibles such as CBD Gummies, CBD Chocolate, or CBD Oatmeal. These natural dietary supplements will not get you high, stoned, or otherwise intoxicated, leaving you waking up fresh and rested the next morning.
Anyone willing to give growing a try should check out our Blue Monkey CBD cannabis seeds. These carefully bred genetics produce buds that can contain THC:CBD ratios ranging to 1:35. Just rifle through our Grow Blogs and you’ll find out how anyone can grow cannabis without losing sleep over it!