Does CBD Make You Sleazy?
If you are someone who is asking does CBD make you sleepy, then you may be a candidate for medical marijuana use. For many years people in the US have been using cannabis as a means to relieve pain and suffering from terminal illnesses. Over the last couple of decades many people from Canada, as well as other countries, have started experimenting with different strains of cannabis. Some people claim to feel a bit “high” during the experience, and others claim not to be at all jittery. Unfortunately for anyone trying to decide if cannabis can help them fall asleep, the answer is not yet known.
In the last decade – or so there have been a number of studies done on the effect of medical marijuana on anxiety and sleep disorders. However, most of these studies have been inconclusive at best. No study has been able to establish if medical marijuana can actually reduce or eliminate symptoms associated with insomnia or chronic depression. What it does do, however, is give a general sedative effect which plays a very important role in bringing you into a state of mild relaxation, which makes you more likely to fall asleep.
Other disorders – which are often associated with poor sleeping habits are ADD/ADHD, narcolepsy, and epilepsy. Each of these can be treated by prescribing a different type of medicine. Most people with ADD/ADHD can receive a prescription for Ritalin, which is usually given to people who are between the ages of six and seventeen. Narcoleptics will need a prescription for an anti-septic.
So if it works so well for relieving ADD/ADHD – what does it have to do with anxiety and other disorders which are characterized by nerves having strong electrical impulses? The short answer is that while CBD does not actually have an actual influence on brain receptors, it does effect the actions of those receptors. You might be familiar with the concept of neuroinflammation. This is caused by stress and is often associated with insomnia and depression. A recent study from a group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin shows that when mice were briefly given the same dose of CBD as found in a pot that contains an anti-inflammatory compound, they showed no inflammatory response whatsoever.
What the researchers did, instead – was to increase the CBD levels in the mice’s system through the use of high doses of cannabidiol. In normal doses, CBD has little effect on the nerve cells; it just slows down the firing of neurons and does not increase them at all. With the high doses, however, the firing rate of neurons increased by as much as four hundred percent. This increase in neuron firing does not occur in normal doses of CBD, so the results show that with increasing CBD doses, a person will see reduced anxiety and a better night’s sleep. While this study was conducted on rats, it is very likely that it would have the same effect on humans given the right dosage.
Of course, increasing CBD only works – if the doses are high enough to effect a positive change in your nervous system. For most people, that can’t be done. However, you may find that you feel less anxious and more rested after taking small, regular doses of CBD, as well as the occasional high doses. Even if it can’t cure insomnia on its own, it has been shown to greatly reduce the effects of other anxiety reducing medications, such as those used to treat depression and chronic pain.
Since it is also an anti-anxiety agent, it may be helpful in treating both conditions simultaneously.
