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Health+Wellness
Cannabis for Sleep
Describe how important sleep is for health, how cannabis can help, and how patients should go about choosing a product.
Sleep seems easy enough. You feel tired, you go to bed, you fall asleep. Even as easy as it may sound, our sleep cycles are very complicated. A lot of adults have difficulty sleeping. In fact, there are 50-70 million adults in the United States who suffer from some sort of sleep disorder, according to the American Sleep Association. That’s a lot of people who might find relief with cannabis.
Why Is Sleep Important?
For the millions of people out there who have trouble sleeping, cannabis may help. Not getting enough sleep can be real a problem for your health. Sleep plays a vital role in our overall wellbeing. It’s when our body heals and repairs itself. It recharges our mind, contributing to our quality of life, our safety, and even the safety of others. Did you know that driving while tired causes a total of 1,550 deaths, and 40,000 injuries in the United States every year?
Sleep deprivation or chronic disturbances in sleep causes many health problems. It affects your immune system, cognitive function, learning, mood, and emotional state. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to an increased risk of many diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease.
So how much sleep is enough? Adults are recommended to get 7-9 hours of sleep each night, but it turns out, a lot of people are affected by insomnia. Insomnia is actually the most common sleep disorder, affecting 30% of adults. 10% of adults suffer from chronic insomnia. Even if you don’t have any sort of sleep disorder, sometimes you may have problems sleeping after long days, or stressful situations. With so many people not getting enough sleep, and suffering from the consequences, how can cannabis help?
How Does Cannabis Help With Sleep?
Cannabis has been used as a sleep aide for as long as it has been used as a medicine. It helps balance and restore our natural sleep cycle. This allows some people to fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and provides a more restful and restorative sleep cycle, improving almost all aspects of our health. THC has been shown specifically to help patients fall asleep faster, which can often be the most difficult part. CBD can play another part in improving sleep cycles, however, there is a mix of patients reporting CBD helps with their sleep, and others who say it gives them an alert feeling. This is something you’ll have to discover on your own, by trying different products at different dosages to determine how they affect you personally.
Terpenes can also contribute to beneficial sleep. Linalool, the same terpene found in lavender known for reducing stress and encouraging sleep, is also found in certain cannabis strains. Many believe the terpenes in cannabis influence the effects, and with over 100 terpenes having been found in cannabis so far, it’s good to know how they might benefit you. It also helps in picking out the right cannabis product to help you sleep, so consider all of these options.
Remember, since cannabis affects everyone somewhat differently, you’re going to have to experiment a little to find your perfect remedy, but our patient care specialists are happy to point you in the right direction in search of better quality sleep.