Can CBD Gummies Help with Sleep?

The inability to sleep does not only affect you at nighttime; it affects countless aspects of the next day and your life. Without sleep, you have difficulty concentrating, you feel exhausted all the time, and your mental and physical health take a toll. You’ve probably tried all sorts of home remedies and sleeping pills, but the former may not work, and the latter can come with unpleasant side effects.

And then you heard about how people are using CBD to help them sleep. Yes, CBD is derived from cannabis, but most people don’t smoke it the way you would with medical marijuana. CBD comes in all sorts of forms, such as oils, tinctures, creams, lotions, patches, sprays, and edibles—including gummies. If you are at your wit’s end and ready to try something new, it is extremely possible that CBD can help you have a restful night’s sleep.

How does it work?

Using cannabis to aid sleep is nothing new. A Chinese medical text from around 1200 AD describes its uses for inducing sleep; nowadays, we can isolate particular components instead of using the plant as a whole.

CBD is short for cannabidiol, which is one of over a hundred compounds called cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. You have undoubtedly heard of CBD’s more famous sibling, THC, which also provides a range of health benefits, but it is the substance that makes you feel high.

Your body produces its own cannabinoids, too. These compounds are part of your endocannabinoid system (ECS), which was named after cannabis because it was discovered within the past few decades. Your ECS also comprises of receptors and enzymes, so these elements work together to help your body maintain homeostasis, or equilibrium. If your body temperature is growing dangerously high while playing in the sun, for example, you sweat to cool yourself down and return to a functional state. Your ECS plays a role in alerting your sweat glands to start producing so that you don’t overheat.

Adding cannabinoids like THC and CBD from a plant (phytocannabinoids) gives your ECS a boost. Because your ECS is involved in so many bodily functions—such as mood, appetite, digestion, pain, pleasure, inflammation, and of course, sleep—people have learned to take CBD for all sorts of ailments.

Do you have trouble sleeping because of anxiety? CBD can help calm your mind, reminding it that you are safe. Is pain keeping you up at night? Cannabidiol can help reduce your symptoms. New research even suggests that CBD interacts with your brain receptors that control your sleeping and waking cycles, affecting your sleep directly.

Why pick CBD gummies?

When it comes to sleep, ingesting CBD as an oil, tincture, capsule, or edible is probably your best bet. Sprays, patches, and topicals are more for skincare and localized muscle or joint pain.

Some hemp products (hemp is the kind of cannabis CBD must be legally sourced from in the US) can taste earthy, so many people gravitate toward gummy edibles because they’re delicious. CBD gummies from Verma Farms, for example, come in flavors like Tropical Cherry, Beary Beach, Island Apple, and Blueberry Wave.

Gummies also make it easier to measure how much you ingest. Tinctures and topicals can involve a bit of guesswork, but you know precisely how much CBD is in each individual gummy. Start with a low dose and work your way up until you find a level that works for you; some gummies come with as little as 5mg, but Verma’s 12.5 and 21mg-gummies are more in the mid-range.

Another advantage gummies have over other CBD products when it comes to sleep is that they can include other ingredients. Some products can as well, like oils, but taking a tasty CBD gummy with a dash of melatonin before bedtime sounds preferable, right?

Things to look for

When shopping for the best CBD gummies, you can start with those that Forbes and Entrepreneur recommend. The concentration you select will depend on your difficulty sleeping, your body weight, and tolerance, so talk with your doctor first.

There are a few things to watch out for, though: there is no organization enforcing industry standards, so the CBD landscape is rife with fraud and unsafe products. Only buy from companies that are transparent about where their hemp comes from (preferably places like Colorado and Kentucky). They should also have their products tested for potency and purity with third-party labs, and publish the results online, known as Certificates of Analysis. Any company worthy of your business will make its COAs readily available (it’s imperative that you learn how to read these).

CBD gummies can provide tremendous sleep assistance, but not all brands make them the same way. Be careful about who you purchase from, conduct your research, and find a dosage that helps you sleep but doesn’t knock you out. Will you try CBD gummies for more restful nights?

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