Does CBD Make You Sleepy?

The positive influence of CBD products on sleep quality makes people look for probable catches and possible side effects like drowsiness. It may seem logical that since CBD can improve sleep, it may also make you sleepy when you’re awake.

However, CBD influences the sleep quality not in the way you may have imagined. In this article, we’ll review how CBD interacts with your nervous system, affects your energy level, and hopefully help you answer the question “Does CBD make you sleepy?”.

How Does CBD Interact With the Nervous System? 

The basic point of contact of CBD with our nervous system is a separate system of our body called the endogenous cannabinoid system or endocannabinoid system. This system consists of endocannabinoids produced by nerve cells, receptors located throughout our body, and enzymes responsible for endocannabinoid decomposition. 

Once anything disrupts our homeostasis (in other words, brokes the balance of body internal processes), nerve cells produce endocannabinoids that bind to endocannabinoid receptors to activate the homeostasis-restoring process. After the endocannabinoids perform their mission, enzymes take action to decompose endocannabinoids back into their constituents. 

In case a body often experiences any health conditions, the endocannabinoid system may face endocannabinoid deficiency. This, in turn, may lead to inefficient or slow restoring of homeostasis.

CBD and Endocannabinoid System

CBD can interact with the endocannabinoid system in both direct and indirect ways. As well as endocannabinoids, CBD can bind to cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) scattered throughout our body and launch the endocannabinoid system. This way of interaction is considered to be direct.

Besides interacting with CB1 and CB2 receptors, CBD regulates enzymes and transport proteins in the endocannabinoid system. Enzymes are responsible for the degradation of endocannabinoids. The function of transport proteins is to bind to existing endocannabinoids in your body and deliver them to enzymes. CBD reduces the activity of enzymes and makes transport proteins bind to phytocannabinoids instead of endocannabinoids. This helps to increase the concentration of endocannabinoids in the body and enhance the processes running in the endocannabinoid system. 

How CBD Differs From Sleeping Pills

To answer the question “Does CBD make you sleepy?”, let’s review the difference between the influence of CBD and sleeping pills on your body. 

First of all, let’s review the most common types of sleeping pills, the principles of their work, and their side effects. 

How sleeping pills influence sleep 

Sleeping pills vary in main active components and principles of action. Here, we’d like to review the most common types of sleeping pills people take to improve sleep. 

1. Sedating antihistamines – The medications containing antihistamines block the action of histamine in our bodies. They mimic a natural process in our body – when we prepare to sleep, the histamine level in the body decreases. Decreased histamine level, in turn, makes us want to sleep. The most common side effect sedating antihistamines may cause include:
2. Benzodiazepines – Sleep aids with these components affect GABA neurotransmitters in the brain and enhance their activity. In turn, GABA neurotransmitters reduce nerve activity in the brain and spinal cord to calm or sedate a person.
3. Non-benzodiazepines (or Z-drugs) – The principle of work of non-benzodiazepines is the same as of benzodiazepines. They interact with GABA neurotransmitters and slow down the activity of the brain.

The most common side effects that are peculiar to all these types of sleep aids are:

Wherever the way sleeping pills work, the principle of the majority of them comes down to forcing the brain to reduce its activity.  Hence, sleep quality is scarce as this forced sleep doesn’t deliver the same restorative benefits as natural sleep. Poor sleep quality is the primary reason why sleeping pills often make people sleepy at times when they’re supposed to be wide awake. 

How CBD influences sleep

CBD is one of the natural components that might help people improve sleep. Research shows that 66,7% of participants experienced better sleep within the first month of taking CBD. Due to its calming effect on the central nervous system, CBD may help your body properly prepare for rest in the evening. 

However, unlike the majority of sleep aids, CBD doesn’t change your natural sleep architecture. Another research demonstrates that in contrast to sleep aids containing benzodiazepines, CBD doesn’t interfere with the sleep cycle of people without trouble sleeping. Thus, the influence of CBD can help you normalize your sleep without changing your natural sleep-wake cycle and suppressing your internal body clock. 

Does CBD Make You Sleepy?

Although further research studies are needed, CBD seems to optimize the sleeping process in the organism by increasing the efficiency of the endocannabinoid system. Due to that, CBD users often notice improved sleep quality. At the same time, CBD doesn’t disrupt the natural sleep-wake cycle and, therefore, is very unlikely to make you sleepy. 

Research shows that CBD possesses wake-inducing properties and can help treat excessive daytime sleepiness. In addition, there’s evidence that low doses of CBD have a stimulating effect on the human body.

Hence, CBD not only doesn’t make you sleepy but also has the potential to elevate your energy. In the next section, we’ll dive deep into the matter to understand how exactly CBD can affect your energy level.

How Does CBD Affect Your Energy Level?

Our life is full of factors that can negatively influence our energy level. Insomnia, stress, and other conditions can drastically decrease our energy and deprive us of the strength and desire to do what we love. CBD has various uses that might help you maintain your body energy on a level sufficient for a joyful life.

CBD Can Help You Sleep Better

Sleep is probably the most critical aspect that influences our energy level. During sleep, our brain removes toxic waste accumulated during the daytime, the cells in our body communicate and reorganize, our body, in a whole, restores its energy. A night of good sleep helps us maintain appropriate brain function, sound mental health, a healthy weight, a strong immune system, and many other vital aspects.

According to research, sleep deprivation leads to increased energy expenditure, which means that your everyday routine takes more of your energy after a bad night’s sleep. 

Preliminary clinical trials identified the potential of CBD to treat sleep disorders and, therefore, positively influence the level of body energy. A study states that 48 out of 72 patients managed to improve their sleep quality with the help of CBD.

CBD was also associated with the relief of insomnia symptoms during the research on the effectiveness of medical cannabis to treat insomnia. You can find more details on how and when to take CBD for sleep in our blog article.

CBD Helps to Reduce Anxiety and Stress

Anxiety and stress are reactions of our body to external challenges or demands. Just like sleep deprivation, anxiety and stress can drastically decrease your energy level, not to mention more severe consequences. 77% of the US population that struggles with stress claim that they experience stress-caused physical symptoms. 51% of that number experience fatigue, making it the most common symptom provoked by stress. 

Several research studies show promising results of CBD’s potential in beating anxiety and stress. A research study comparing the effect of CBD and placebo on symptoms of social anxiety disorder demonstrates that CBD helps significantly reduce anxiety. Human and animal studies indicate that CBD can also help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Even though we still need more evidence about the positive effect of CBD on reducing anxiety and stress, they are currently among the top reasons why people use CBD. 

CBD Can Help You Reduce Inflammation

Apart from causing discomfort, swelling, and pain, inflammation can lower our body’s energy level as well. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of several chronic inflammatory diseases, including rheumatic diseases. 

CBD, in turn, has been shown to have an anti-inflammatory effect. Studies show that CBD is anxiolytic by its nature and can therefore reduce inflammation and blood pressure. Another research indicates that CBD can act as an anti-inflammatory agent in pro-inflammatory conditions.  

As you can see, CBD is likely to help you manage sleep disorders, stress and anxiety, and inflammatory diseases that often take too much of your energy. Due to that fact, we can conclude that CBD can hardly deprive you of energy and make you sleepy in the daytime. In fact, CBD is more likely to raise your body energy, make you vigorous, and increase your focus. 

How to Use CBD?

Now that we’ve provided you with essential information to help you answer the question “Does CBD make you sleepy?”, let’s figure out how you can use CBD to your advantage.

Choose Consumption Form

Nowadays, CBD is produced in various forms and products, including edibles, supplements, topicals, drinks, and others. However, not all of them have the same efficiency in regards to optimizing vitality and vigor. The most common consumption forms used for elevating the energy level are CBD oil tinctures and CBD gummies.

CBD Oil Tinctures

CBD oil tincture is a mix of CBD extract and carrier oil, most commonly coconut oil. The mixture is usually packed in a glass bottle with a convenient dropper. The dropper allows you to easily adjust the serving which is a good option for those who don’t know their ideal dosage yet. 

In addition, CBD oil has high bioavailability. It allows the maximum amount of CBD components to enter your bloodstream directly and activate your endocannabinoid system. You can also accelerate the effect of CBD oil by taking it after a meal.

CBD Gummies

CBD gummies are chewy sweets made with marmalade and CBD extract. The gummies are convenient to intake on the go and easy to share with friends. Moreover, each CBD gummy has a constant amount of CBD in it, so that it’s easy for consumers to track the dosage.

Choose Reliable CBD Brand

The effects you can get after consuming CBD products highly depend on the quality of those products. That’s why you should not underestimate the importance of the CBD product brand reputation. Here, we’ll review several significant tips you should use when buying CBD products. 

Choose Organic CBD Products

Choosing organic CBD products is not only safe for your own health but the environment as well. “Organic” label means that at least 95% of the final product is obtained from organic sources. 

Since the major ingredient of CBD products is hemp, it must be organic. Organic hemp is hemp that was grown without industrial solvents, chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, and genetic engineering. 

Unabis offers organic CBD products made of organic full-spectrum hemp oil and natural ingredients.

Check Third-Party Laboratory Test Results

Free access to the brand products’ third-party lab tests is another indicator that can help you make a decision about the CBD products’ quality. Third-party lab test results are evidence of CBD products’ purity and safety. 

Wherever you’re buying CBD products, you have the right to check the brand products’ lab test results. In case a brand doesn’t provide third-party test results, it’s not a good sign.

On our website, you can find the laboratory testing results of the CBD oil we use in our CBD products and make a fully informed buying decision. 

Read Customer Reviews

The customers’ opinion on the CBD brand’s products is another vital factor you should take into account. Read the customers’ reviews to determine if they experience any positive or negative effects after using the brand’s assortment, the convenience of using a specific CBD product form, and other significant aspects.

Besides checking the reviews on the brand’s official website, you can also try to find some reviews on third-party services like Trustpilot.

Consult with your healthcare provider

Before adding CBD products to your daily regimen, it’s better to inform your physician (or any healthcare expert familiar with the CBD and its effects) about your intentions. Let the healthcare provider know about your current health state and the medications you’re currently taking. Thus, the expert will be able to identify if there are any сontraindications. 

A healthcare professional can also help you define the correct dosage of CBD you need to take to accomplish your purpose. Although CBD brands often state the recommended dosage on the product package, you’d better stick to your healthcare provider’s recommendations.

Summary

Apart from helping you achieve your initial purpose for using CBD products, be it pain relief, inflammation reduction, or anxiety alleviation, CBD can help you feel vigorous by maintaining your healthy sleeping pattern.