Cannabidiol (CBD) is everywhere. If you live in a place where CBD is legal, the chances are high that you’ve come across CBD creams, gummy bears, chocolates, pills, tinctures, or oils in the nearby gas station, convenient store, and even online.
You might be wondering, what makes CBD this popular? Well, CBD is a cannabis compound with many therapeutic effects on your body. What makes it stand out among other cannabis components is its non-psychoactive nature. This means you enjoy some of its health benefits, like easing pain and anxiety without getting high.
Similarly, CBD can help people with insomnia. Since CBD effectively treats some of the triggers of insomnia, it can improve your sleep quality. Research shows that CBD is effective in improving sleep because it treats the leading causes of insomnia.
Now, let’s look at how CBD helps in managing insomnia:
What’s Insomnia and Its Causes?
Insomnia generally refers to difficulty in sleeping. It can be due to challenges in falling asleep or staying asleep. Everyone may experience sleep loss from time to time. So, unless it happens more than three times per week, affecting about 10% of American adults, it’s just a temporary sleep issue.
To understand how CBD helps, it’s important first to understand the causes of insomnia. While several factors can cause insomnia, these are the common ones:
- Disturbance from high temperature, noise, or light
- Medical prescriptions
- Exercising before going to bed
- Mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, or stress
- Underlying health conditions like stroke, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s disease
- Sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea
- Caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol
- Stress due to family life or work issues
- Poor sleeping habits
If internal factors trigger your insomnia, CBD may improve your sleep quality by treating them.
How CBD Works to Improve Sleep
You can benefit from taking high-quality CBD Oil Canada . CBD interacts with your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS) to release various benefits. The ECS is a complex system that impacts the immune system, nervous system, and crucial body organs.
The ECS is not yet fully understood but it’s believed to control various body processes like memory, appetite, mood, and sleep. The ECS consists of receptors called cannabinoid receptors. Among the receptors, CB1 and CB2 receptors are the most well-known.
The receptors are found throughout the body. CBD also has cannabinoids similar to ECS’s. They stimulate these receptors to initiate various chemical responses that help the body to achieve a balanced state.
Researchers believe that sleep disorders and insomnia result from ECS dysfunction. CBD activates the ECS, allowing it to regulate activities that influence sleep properly. So, if your ECS lacks enough endocannabinoids to support its functions, taking CBD may benefit you.
That said, here are the three ways CBD can promote sleep:
1. Eases Anxiety
Anxiety is associated with sleep issues. When you have excessive fear or worry, falling asleep and maintaining a sound sleep becomes hard. On the other hand, sleep deprivation worsens anxiety causing insomnia and other illnesses. CBD comes in because it works well in treating anxiety, thereby improving your sleep quality.
According to research, CBD can help to ease anxiety by reducing anxiety. The study involved 72 subjects, out of which 25 had poor sleep, and 47 were struggling with anxiety. They were given a regular dose of CBD regularly. The results from the first month indicated that 66.7 of the participants experienced improved sleep, and 79.2% had reduced anxiety levels.
2. Treats Pain
Pain is known to interfere with mood and other activities that impact sleep. Fortunately, CBD can help to manage pain and improve sleep. A 2018 review concluded that there’s enough evidence to back the claim that CBD eases pain. According to the authors, reducing severe pain may help in boosting sleep.
3. Treats Sleep Disorders
The real cause of sleep disorders, such as REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), is unknown. However, it believed that it occurs alongside other degenerative neurological conditions like dementia, multisystem atrophy, and Parkinson’s disease. RBD doesn’t just interfere with the victim’s sleep cycle; it may indirectly interfere with their bed partners’ as well.
A 2014 research investigated the effects of CBD on four participants with Parkinson’s disease. They discovered that CBD helps in treating REM, a condition where victims act out of their dreams. It causes them to walk while dreaming or do other physical activities. REM is a major cause of nightmares and sleep deprivation.
Conclusion
Chronic sleep deprivation or insomnia interferes with your body’s internal system and may result in serious health illnesses. So, if you have persistent sleep issues, then you could be suffering from a sleep disorder that a doctor can help you manage.
CBD is one of the best natural alternatives for promoting quality sleep. Using it alone or alongside other medications, can you have a night of good sleep. However, make sure to talk to your doctor before taking CBD supplements for the best results.
