When to take CBD before bed? Why it’s a lot more complicated than you think.

Taking CBD for sleep? Then you’ll most likely have asked yourself when to take CBD before bed for the best sleep.

The current advice is to take CBD one hour before, but unfortunately it isn’t quite so straight-forward.

In order to really understand when to take CBD for sleep for you, you’ll need to dig a little deeper and ask yourself some difficult questions. Be prepared!

What is at the root of your sleeping problems?

The first question you will need to ask yourself is why you think you are having problems sleeping.

There are many reasons why people have problems sleeping from a busy stressful job to difficulties turning off our thoughts or even not sleeping as result of another condition, like chronic pain.

Depending on why you are not sleeping will determine when you should take CBD before bed in order for you to get the best nights sleep.

Not sleeping because of stress

If you are not sleeping because of a busy job, a stressful situation or feeling anxious all the time, you need to be honest with yourself how long this situation has been going on for.

Short-term stress

If you are suffering with sleep problems because of a current stressful situation (if you anxious about an event coming up for example), this is a short-term stress and will hopefully pass after the event.

You could consider taking a bigger dose of CBD for the actual anxiety-provoking event.

For example, in this 2011 study, participants who took CBD prior to a public presentation had significant reductions in anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort in their speech performance.

Chronic and prolonged stress

Chronic stress over a longer term is a much more serious situation. If you don’t manage the stress now, you could be on the way to a much more serious situation, like burnout syndrome, adrenal fatigue or chronic fatigue.

This kind of stress wreaks havoc on the endocannabinoid system, nervous system, immune system and leaves us with a constant feeling of being emotionally drained.

Have you recently described yourself as feeling like you’ve been ‘hit like a bus’ or ‘so tired you want to crawl under a rock for a month’ ? Many people on the journey to burnout describe this is how it feels like.

In addition to problems with sleep, some of other symptoms you might be experiencing are:

• chronic fatigue,
• irritability
• anxiety
• brain fog
• poor memory,
• trouble retaining information

This is a relatively serious situation and one you should pay close attention to. The journey to burnout can sneak up on you and before you know it, you will collapse out of no-where after’one more thing’.

The problem with chronic stress is that your adrenal glands are pumping the stress hormone, cortisol throughout the day. While cortisol should reduce naturally throughout the day which helps us to sleep at night, if you are having cortisol spikes throughout the day, you will struggle to sleep at night.

When to take CBD for sleep for stress

The secret to getting to sleep at night then is to manage your stress during the day. It is essential to address the sleep problems over the whole 24-hour cycle and not just before bed.

• A good strategy to manage daytime stress is to microdose CBD, taking CBD 2–3 times throughout the day, e.g. to start with 5mg after breakfast, 5mg after lunch and another dose after dinner. You might want to increase this dosage after a few days depending on how you feel.
• You should look at taking a daytime CBD oil with sativa dominant strains and uplifting terpenes.
• You should consider taking some other adaptogens (plant medicines which help us manage stress) such ashwagandha, astragalus and a high quality omega-3 fish oil.

Not sleeping because of insomnia

If you are not sleeping because of insomnia or difficulties with turning off your thoughts at night, its a little more straight-forward.

Are you having trouble falling asleep?

If you are having trouble falling asleep, you might want to consider setting up an evening routine, the same routine each evening to help you wind down.

• Take an indica dominant with relaxing terpenes full-spectrum oil like the Original Alternative purple oil are a really good effective way to start.
• Take other natural sleep herbs such as passionflower, valerian and hops in addition to CBD.

Are you having trouble waking up early?

If you are having trouble waking up early, you might want to consider a different method of taking CBD oil where effects last longer or a higher strength CBD oil.

• Take a higher strength indica dominant with relaxing terpenes full-spectrum oil, or a where absorption is much higher.water-soluble CBD oil
• Take other natural sleep such as passionflower, valerian and hops in addition to CBD.

When to take CBD for sleep for insomnia

Although most CBD articles, say 1 hour before bed, as a rampant CBD user for sleep, I always recommend oils be taken just 20mins before sleep (the time it usually takes to begin to take effect) if you are struggling to get to sleep or else just before lights out if you are waking early.

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Originally published at https://www.plus120.com.