Cannabis and Sleep: 5 Things You Need to Know About Your Herbal Night Time Rest Aid

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of maintaining an overall high quality of health. For many of us, part of our holistic health involves consuming cannabis for many health benefits, including sleep. Here are five things you need to know about how cannabis impacts our sleep.

After a year filled with many challenges, one of the challenges millions of people were facing in 2020 was increased disturbances. Whether this meant lack of sleep, decreased amount of sleep, feeling tired after sleeping, 2020 caused many of us issues with getting shut-eye.

Neurologists have been calling pandemic-induced sleep problems ‘COVID-Somia’, and several studies have been done on the matter. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of us have been turning to cannabis to help us sleep. Here are five things you need to know about your herbal nighttime sleep aid.

1. Cannabis Helps Us Fall Asleep Faster

Even the most inexperienced cannabis consumer, and even those who have never even tried it will know that cannabis can help us feel relaxed and less stressed. Given this, it’s not news that cannabis can help us fall asleep faster. This is especially true for those suffering from conditions like chronic pain and PTSD, as these ailments can negatively impact the quality of sleep.

Keep in mind that inhaling cannabis will cause us to feel the effects sooner than if we consume food or beverages infused with the plant medicine. However, eating cannabis-infused products might help you stay asleep longer than vaping or smoking. Just be sure to take your edible an hour or two before bedtime.

2. Nighttime Cannabis Consumption Might Lead to Morning Grogginess

Some of us who have consumed cannabis at night might remember sometimes feeling a bit groggy, dehydrated or lethargic the next morning. If this never happened to you, consider yourself one of the lucky ones! This feeling certainly isn’t close to the hangover we feel from alcohol. But overindulging or consuming low-grade cannabis might lead to this feeling. It’s always a good idea to drink plenty of water, take your vitamins, and avoid eating junk food when we get the munchies.

3. Everyone - and Every Cultivar - Is Different

Common cannabis wisdom dictates that cultivars that are Indica-dominant are the ones that will help you feel more sleepy and Sativa will help you feel uplifted. There is truth in this - we even compiled a list of ten of the best varieties that have been known to help you sleep - but don’t pick an Indica for sleep just because someone else says it helps them.

First, the traditional classification of Indica and Sativa is outdated and needs an update. Not to mention, many other factors dictate how a cannabis variety will make us feel - including its terpene profile, as well as its cannabinoid content. Do cultivars with high CBD content help you sleep? Maybe you’ll be surprised that a particular cultivar with lower THC will help. As we’ve said many times before, cannabis affects each of us differently. So as with so many other aspects of consuming cannabis, experimentation is key!

4. THC Can Impact Our REM Sleep

Another way that cannabis can affect our sleep is how much we remember our dreams and how vivid our dreams are. The reason for this is that cannabis can impact our REM sleep - which stands for rapid eye movement. REM isn’t just the name of a band that was popular in the ’90s, it’s an important aspect of our overall health because of how it impacts our sleep quality. REM sleep is when we tend to get the most restorative and deep quality of sleep, which is also when we have the most intense and memorable dreams.

Cannabis clearly can help us fall asleep, but we might experience issues when it comes to staying asleep and getting restorative rest due to how THC affects the brain. Studies have shown that consuming cannabis multiple times each day can reduce the amount of time we spend in REM sleep. This phenomenon seems to be most prevalent in those of us who consume cannabis multiple times each day. We will tend to experience a “REM reset” if we take a tolerance break - which some of us need more of anyway!

5. Other Natural Sleep Remedies May Help, Too

Cannabis can help many of us get the much-needed rest we need, but combining it with other natural remedies can be even more effective. Mediation, reducing screen time, relaxing ASMR videos, and creating a sleep schedule all play a part in sleep quality. Nighttime caffeine-free teas with calming ingredients like chamomile and skullcap. Additionally, adding natural sleep aids like melatonin or valerian can help us get that good night’s sleep we need.

Broken Record

It’s a broken record at this point, but more studies need to be done before we fully understand how cannabis impacts our sleep. This is the case for far too many aspects of cannabis, as we’ve said multiple times before. Hopefully, the policy wins for legal cannabis in the 2020 election cycle will lead to more much-needed scientific research to be done here in 2021.

Disclaimer:

The content on this page is provided by HashDash for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or as a substitute for professional healthcare advice. Do not use this information to diagnose or treat any medical condition or ailment on your own. Always consult a physician or qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions about treatment. The information and products mentioned herein have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition.

HashDash - Educating the Cannabis Consumer of the Future

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