Multiple Studies Show Using CBD Oil for Sleep Disorders May Be Your Safest Bet
Anna Hunt, Staff
Waking Times
We all need an adequate amount of sleep to stay healthy, energetic, and mentally acute. Yet, many factors can easily get in the way of that ideal 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. Stress, a troubled mind, physical discomfort, and countless other factors can cause you to lose out on sleep. This is where cannabidiol (CBD) can be a crucial supplement.
Pharmaceutical Solutions for Sleep Disorders
First, let’s look at your options when it comes to pharmaceutical sleeping aides. There are some seemingly-innocuous over-the-counter (OTC) medications, such as Tylenol PM, Benadryl and Unisom. Most of these have typical OTC drug side-effects, such as dry mouth, blurred vision and constipation.
Unfortunately, many sufferers don’t realize that these OTC drugs are meant to be taken on a short-term basis. Long-term use can compromise the body on a more biological level, causing problems such as liver toxicity. Furthermore, many of these OTC sleep aides may cause daytime drowsiness. Doesn’t this actually defeat the reason why you would want to use them? If you’re taking drugs to get some sleep, you’d hope to have energy the next day, versus still feeling sluggish.
On the other hand, there are theoretically more effective prescription sedatives and hypnotics. Unfortunately, these medications carry some very serious risks that make the side-effects of OTC drugs seem quite trivial. For example, they increase your risk of mortality, often result in next-day functional impairment, and could cause depression.
Statistics published by Project CBD show a very concerning risk:
10,000 deaths per year are directly caused by and attributed to hypnotic drugs, based on medical examiner data. However, large epidemiological studies suggest the number of fatalities may actually be closer to 300,000-500,000 per year.
This may be making you think: why are such dangerous, scary drugs even legal!
What if there was a much safer way to treat sleeplessness and other sleep disorders that didn’t have any side effects? This is where CBD oil extract or tincture comes into the picture. This cannabis-derived supplement seems to hold significant promise for those suffering from sleep ailments.
Researchers Looks Into CBD Oil for Sleep Disorders
Although medical cannabis is very effective in inducing sleepiness, many people do not want smoke or ingest weed. Also, many do not enjoy the psychoactive effects of the cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Fortunately, producers are now extracting the non-psychoactive CBD from the cannabis plant and offering many high-quality CBD oil supplements.
See The CBDistillery’s CBDrop Full Spectrum Oil.
Researchers and medical professionals have been very eager to understand the effect that CBD really has on our sleep. We now have a significant array of studies that give us a glimpse into CBD’s potential. Peter Grinspoon, MD, writes on his blog at Harvard Health Publishing:
CBD is commonly used to address anxiety, and for patients who suffer through the misery of insomnia, studies suggest that CBD may help with both falling asleep and staying asleep.
Staying asleep is one of the biggest obstacles for many people, especially ones suffering from stress or illness. Research shows that CBD may help. A study out of the University of São Paulo states:
The systemic acute administration of CBD appears to increase total sleep time, in addition to increasing sleep latency in the light period of the day of administration.
Let’s be honest. It is often stress, anxiety, fear, trauma, etc. that keeps the mind “awake” when it’s time to fall asleep. Testing of CBD oil to help sleeplessness caused by post traumatic stress has show very positive results. Here’s what researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine discovered:
Cannabidiol oil, an increasingly popular treatment of anxiety and sleep issues, has been documented as being an effective alternative to pharmaceutical medications. This case study provides clinical data that support the use of cannabidiol oil as a safe treatment for reducing anxiety and improving sleep in a young girl with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Sleeplessness in the Western World
Excessive daytime sleepiness and difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep are extremely common. But is this really all that much of a surprise? The Western lifestyle sets unrealistic expectations on people at work, in school and in social settings. Studies show that eight our of ten Americans are afflicted by stress. In addition, the overwhelming amount of time that we spend in front of screens plays a significant role in our collective sleep deprivation. Furthermore, the body is under a constant barrage of electromagnetic pollution.
No wonder so many people have trouble sleeping well! Even if you’re not one of the 40 million Americans who have reported to suffer from a sleep disorder, you could probably still benefit from better sleep.
Sleep Disorders Could Lead to Chronic Illness
The body is constantly bombarded with chemicals in food, water and the environment. It is constantly fighting off germs and pathogens. Thus, it needs sleep to regenerate, cleanse, reset, etc. Hence, if you’re getting less than 7 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, you are more likely to suffer from a variety of chronic health conditions. These include obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease and stroke. Other ailments are also possible, such as brain fog, cognitive decline and headaches.
Many people are starting to use CBD oil for sleep ailments, as well as to support general health and wellbeing. If you would like to try a CBD tincture, our affiliate partner CBDistillery is offering a 5% discount for Waking Times readers. Visit The CBDistillery here, and enter coupon code WAKINGTIMES during checkout.
Read more articles by Anna Hunt.
About the Author
Anna Hunt is writer, yoga instructor, mother of three, and lover of healthy food. She’s the founder of Awareness Junkie, an online community paving the way for better health and personal transformation. She’s also the co-editor at Waking Times, where she writes about optimal health and wellness. Anna spent 6 years in Costa Rica as a teacher of Hatha and therapeutic yoga. She now teaches at Asheville Yoga Center and is pursuing her Yoga Therapy certification. During her free time, you’ll find her on the mat or in the kitchen, creating new kid-friendly superfood recipes.
Sources:
-http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/sleep-aids/art-20047860
-http://www.projectcbd.org/about/laboratorypreclinical-studies/cannabis-sleep-disturbances
-http://www.projectcbd.org/condition/48/Sleep-Disorders
-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27768570
-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23343597
-http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/cannabidiol-cbd-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-2018082414476
-http://news.gallup.com/poll/224336/eight-americans-afflicted-stress.aspx
This article (Multiple Studies Show Using CBD Oil for Sleep Disorders May Be Your Safest Bet) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Anna Hunt and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Waking Times or its staff.