Cannabeginners: CBD for sleep

One of the most common reasons people consume cannabis or hemp products is to aid sleep. Those looking for help with sleeping but want to avoid feeling high usually assume that CBD will help them sleep without any intoxication, but in reality, depending on the dose of CBD they take, it might be even more difficult to fall asleep.

The discovery and history of CBD

Although cannabinol (CBN) has the honor of being the first cannabinoid ever discovered, CBD is a close second. In 1940, Roger Adams and his colleagues at the University of Illinois isolated first CBN, and then later that same year CBD. At that time, little was known about the effects or chemical structure.

It took until 1963, when Raphael Mechoulam elucidated the chemical structure of CBD, a year before elucidating THC. Once the intoxicating effects of THC were discovered by Raphael Mechoulam in 1964, CBD was largely ignored, even by the research community. Then, in 2008, with the advent of the world’s first cannabis testing laboratory, CBD was rediscovered and has since been the subject of considerable study.

CBD for sleep

In 1981, one of the first studies exploring the relationship between CBD and sleep showed that subjects receiving 160 mg of cannabidiol reported sleeping significantly more than those receiving a placebo. Although some of the study volunteers used doses lower than 160 mg, these lower doses would not have had as strong a sedative effect. A 2012 literature review summarized the extent of research conducted over the previous three decades on CBD and sedation. Clinical trials suggest that oral CBD in high doses (150,600 mg/day) may have a therapeutic effect on social anxiety disorder, insomnia and epilepsy, but also that it may cause mental sedation. The following year, a study in rats found that these sedative effects applied to rodents as well as humans, with rodents experiencing an increase in total sleep duration, in addition to an increase in sleep latency. sleep.

More recently, a 2019 study using humans rather than rodents found sleep benefits for some patients, but their data is limited because dosing was inconsistent. Nonetheless, they observed that sleep scores improved within the first month in 48 patients (66.7%), but fluctuated over time; much of this fluctuation occurred once patients received medication. outpatient care and consistent dosing became even more difficult. The researchers didn’t do a good job reporting which dose of CBD corresponded to which sleep benefit, but they noted previous research that higher doses led to longer sleep duration.

CBD for alertness

Astute readers may now be wondering if the research is fairly consistent that a high dose of CBD, typically greater than 160 mg of CBD, produces a feeling of sedation, what about a lower dose? This is where the science of CBD and sleep gets really complicated and is a perfect illustration of the biphasic properties of many cannabinoids (where low doses produce one effect and higher doses produce a dramatically different response).

In 1977, four years before Carlini and Cunha published their study showing that high doses of CBD could improve sleep, Monti demonstrated that CBD could cause rats to sleep less. In 2006, Eric Rodriguez led a team of researchers, including Raphael Mechoulam, on a study that expanded Montis’ research and showed that low doses of CBD induced alertness and suggested that it might have therapeutic value in disorders sleep such as excessive sleepiness. Rodriguez continued his study two years later, which showed CBD to be a wakefulness-inducing compound at low doses. In 2014, Rodriguez conducted a literature review on the effects of CBD on sleep, which noted conflicting results on the effect of CBD on sleep, dating back to the early days of CBD research. Rodriguez’s literature review highlighted differences in route of administration, vehicle used, doses, subjects, etc. as the cause of the paradoxically different effects of CBD on sleep and alertness. In a 2019 study on narcolepsy, Rodriguez and his team suggested that CBD could prevent drowsiness related to narcolepsy.

What do consumers really want?

Now that we’ve delved into the research on the effects of CBD on sleep, let’s take a moment to talk about what consumers are actually looking for when looking for a CBD product to help them sleep. It is important for individuals to ask themselves: What is stopping me from sleeping? Is their main problem a lack of sedation, i.e. they cannot get tired? Or is it racing thoughts, pain, or something else that’s keeping them up? The Budtenders Guide is a wonderful handbook for aspiring budtenders and consumers who want to better understand different cannabis products and the medical effects of cannabis.

If a person’s main problem is not drowsiness, in other words, they do not feel tired, then it is likely that they will need a much higher dose of CBD to achieve the result wish. If their main problem is pain, racing thoughts, or one of the myriad other things CBD can help them with, they may be able to use a lower dose to achieve the desired health-related results. sleep, but they should take their CBD a few hours before. bed so that the alert effects have some time to wear off.