CBD & Sleep – What Does The Science Say?
If you struggle with sleep and insomnia, you’re not alone. About 10-30% of the population is estimated to have insomnia or difficulty sleeping. It can be hard to find a treatment that actually works, and lets you get a good night of sleep.
While CBD is growing in popularity for sleep disorder treatment, you may be wondering if it can really help. To find out, let’s see what the science behind CBD has to say about the subject.
How Is CBD Supposed To Help With Sleep Disorders?
To understand the relationship between CBD & sleep, we first need to understand what causes poor sleep. According to the Mayo Clinic, insomnia can be caused by:
- Anxiety, PTSD, & Depression
- substances such as caffeine
- physical conditions such as pain
- medications that can disrupt the sleep cycle
- environmental factors (loud noises, uncomfortable bed, etc.)
Relieving stress and anxiety is the mechanism by which CBD is thought to help regulate sleep cycles. High levels of stress and anxiety are correlated with an increased likelihood of disordered sleep, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Being stressed and anxious can also make an existing sleep disorder worse. Therefor, by mitigating symptoms like anxiety and stress can allow your natural sleep cycle to take over.
A Case Study Of CBD, Sleep, And Anxiety
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that CBD can help with sleep disorders, and many people use it to reduce anxiety and get higher quality sleep. But that’s not all. There are also scientific studies that have shown that CBD may have benefits for individuals who have trouble sleeping.
In a case study done at a psychiatric clinic, it was found that CBD had a significant benefit on both sleep quality and anxiety scores. This study was done with 103 adult patients who had either reported low sleep quality or high anxiety. CBD was administered to all patients, and their outcomes were measured each month. Within one month of beginning CBD treatment, 79.2% of patients showed reduced anxiety scores, which remained low throughout the rest of the study.
In addition, sleep scores improved within the first month for 66.7% of the patients, though they did fluctuate more over time compared to anxiety scores. Only 3 patients out of 103 had any kind of mild negative reaction to the drug – it was well tolerated by the others.
Science Has Shown CBD Has Potential As A Sleep Aid
CBD has been shown to have promising results in lab settings, such as in the above case study. And while a lot more research will need to be done to see how effective it really is. However, as mentioned above, many researchers agree that CBD improves sleep because it has been shown to tackle the root cause of insomnia.
If you’re interested in trying CBD to improve your rest, check out our CBD tincture that is designed to target your sleep-cycle.
