Hemp Oil for Sleep Disorders

In this article we’ll be covering hemp oil for sleep and what the research tells us about cannabinoids and how they work both on their own and through the endocannabinoid system to help regulate sleep.

Hemp Oil for Sleep? An Overview

Sleep disorders or disturbances are conditions used to describe irregularities in normal healthy sleeping patterns. These irregularities can range from mild to severe. Changes to the way you sleep has a big impact on your mental, emotional and physical health. Especially if left unchecked and sleep deprivation begins to occur. Hemp oil for sleep disorders has recently come back into the limelight as before hemp’s ban in 1930, it was regularly used for a range of conditions including hemp oil for sleep.

According to an article in Psychology Today;

The first signs of sleep deprivation are unpleasant feelings of fatigue, irritability, and difficulties concentrating. Then come problems with reading and speaking clearly, poor judgment, lower body temperature, and a considerable increase in appetite. If the deprivation continues, the worsening effects include disorientation, visual misperceptions, apathy, severe lethargy, and social withdrawal.

This was written in response to a recently released report by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence focused on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to the report, among the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used in this program was sleep deprivation.

New parents may strongly relate to the research on sleep deprivation, which can range from mild to more severe if parents are struggling to create a more normalized sleep routine for their baby. Sleep deprivation can affect your ability to drive safely and increase your risk of other health problems.

It can be more challenging to maintain a sense of calm and ease, normal daily tasks can seem far more challenging, conflicts between parents can become more frequent and can escalate more easily, especially if both are sleep deprived. Irritability, anger, frustration and helplessness are all feelings that can surface often. It’s no wonder that at least 1 in 10 parents experience postnatal depression.

In one study, participants were asked to sleep just five hours per night for four weeks to assess the effects of mild sleep deprivation. The results? All of the participants were showing signs of clinical depression by the end of the trial period.

Some of the signs and symptoms of sleep disorders include excessive daytime sleepiness, irregular breathing or increased movement during sleep. Other signs and symptoms include an irregular sleep and wake cycle and difficulty falling asleep. Hemp oil for sleep could be worth looking into as a worthwhile remedy.

Common Sleep Disorders

There are different types of sleep disorders that are categorized into groups based on how they affect the individual and why. This helps professionals to provide advice to resolve the sleep disturbance.

Some of the more common types of sleep disorders are:

• Insomnia, where you have challenges falling asleep and staying asleep throughout the night.
• Sleep apnea, where breathing is irregular during sleep. There are several types of sleep apnea.
• Restless legs syndrome (RLS), a type of sleep movement disorder. Restless legs syndrome, also called Willis-Ekbom disease, causes an uncomfortable sensation and an urge to move the legs while you try to fall asleep.
• Narcolepsy, where you experience extreme sleepiness during the day, along with falling asleep suddenly during daylight hours.

If you’re unsure of whether you have a sleep disorder, as always contact your licenced medical professional about diagnosis and treatment options. Hemp oil for sleep could be an option as many Doctors will prescribe CBD oil, which is only available by prescription only in New Zealand currently, whereas if you find a specific hemp oil for sleep you want to try, you may be able to give that a go in the meantime.

Sleep Disorder Symptoms

There are a variety of sleep disorder symptoms ranging from feeling very sleepy during the day to having difficulty falling asleep at night. Some people may find themselves falling asleep at inappropriate times, such as while driving or at their desk on the job. 

Other symptoms include irregular breathing patterns or movement patterns while trying to fall asleep, jolting or other unusual movements during sleep, or having an unusual sleep and wake cycle.

How Hemp Oil for Sleep Works

After covering an overview of sleep disorders, common types of symptoms, it’s no wonder that a poor night's sleep can make it very difficult to stay focused the next day. Let alone if sleep disturbance is a regular occurance.

The brain is constantly running and needs quality sleep to refresh. Lack of sleep contributes to a decrease in cognitive functioning and an increase of a stress hormone called cortisol. This is why irritability, frustration and anger run higher in those who’re sleep deprived. Cortisol makes it harder to focus and can cause productivity to crash among many other aspects of normal healthy mental and emotional functioning.

Cannabinoids have been shown to work through the endocannabinoid system (ECS) to help regulate normal healthy sleeping patterns. The ECS is the governing system that brings balance and order to all the other systems of the body, including the system that regulates sleep. 

Cannabinoid-rich hemp oil provides the ECS with enough cannabinoids to help bring normal functioning to sleep.

Cannabinoids like CBD have shown effects on hormones, including lowering cortisol in the brain by interfering with its excretion in the adrenal gland. This is important, as high cortisol leads to a disruption in the production of natural sleep hormones. We all know this, as none of us can go to sleep when we're angry. When we're angry, we release a lot of cortisol. So naturally, this stops our ability to have a restful sleep. Luckily, hemp oil for sleep can be of assistance.

Whole plant extractions work directly with the endocannabinoid system (ECS) to regulate sleep patterns and has shown effectiveness in treating insomnia.

By creating an internal balance, or homeostasis, cannabinoids and the ECS can create a normal sleep pattern and maximize the effectiveness of the rest. 

In one study researchers reported “cannabinoids could improve sleep quality, decrease sleep disturbances, and decrease sleep onset latency” and “many of the studies did show a positive effect on sleep.”

Hemp Oil for Sleep & Insomnia

In another meta-analysis of several clinical studies researchers showed “research into cannabis and insomnia suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of insomnia”

This is important for those suffering from insomnia in that they could find relief from a hemp product rich in the cannabinoid, CBD, helping to fall asleep faster and easier and stay asleep.

MARIJANA, THC & SLEEP

The researchers went on to say this, “THC may decrease sleep latency but could impair sleep quality long-term.”

This is an important finding as THC is only found in high levels in marijuana not in industrial hemp. If you didn’t know, marijuana and hemp are both part of the cannabis family of plants, but they are not the same; they are different strains of the same plant, bred in different ways to produce different levels of different compounds. 

Most hemp oil contains less than 0.3% THC, so there’s zero psychoactive effect, meaning no “high.” Making hemp a good substitute for those wanting to regulate sleep without the side effects and long-term implications of marijuana high in the cannabinoid THC.

HEMP OIL FOR SLEEP APNEA

Several varieties of sleep apnea are triggered by serotonin imbalances. When we provide the body with enough cannabinoids to activate the ECS, we can allow the ECS to go to work on the imbalance and core of the problem at hand. That is why cannabinoid-rich hemp oil is so powerful. 

Researchers went on to say this about cannabinoids and sleep apnea, “synthetic cannabinoids such as nabilone and dronabinol may have short-term benefit for sleep apnea due to their modulatory effects on serotonin-mediated apneas.”

HEMP & REM SLEEP

For those who’re struggling to enter REM sleep, the cannabinoid, cannabidiol, found in the hemp plant may prove of value. Getting a good nights sleep through REM sleep is crucially important for the immune system to be able to begin restoring and revitalising the important physiological systems of the body. Without REM sleep, the immune system cannot properly restore normal functioning.

With researchers sharing that, “CBD may hold promise for REM sleep behavior disorder and excessive daytime sleepiness.”

Hemp & Chronic Pain

For those suffering with chronic pain, they may find hemp valuable two fold, not only with the assistance of pain management (the ECS is involved in pain regulation), but also with the assistance of chronic pain related sleep disturbances. 

Both chronic pain and PTSD is associated with sleep disturbances and this can result in frequent nightmares causing sufferers to avoid going to sleep or waking in the middle of the night and having trouble falling back to sleep.

Researchers concluded that CBD products, “may reduce nightmares associated with PTSD and may improve sleep among patients with chronic pain.”

CBD Hemp Oil for Sleep

CBD is one of the highest forming cannabinoids in the hemp plant, but while CBD has had an explosion of attention, there’s much research to be completed on the “entourage effect” of the other 111 cannabinoids found inside hemp such as CBN, CBG, THCA, and CBDA.

One study on CBD isolate (different to CBD hemp oil) and sleep consisted of 72 adult participants with primary concerns of either anxiety and/or sleep disturbances. In just the first month alone, 80% of participants saw a dramatic improvement in their results and continued to improve over the following months of the study.

One of the researchers observed that “evidence points toward a calming effect for CBD in the central nervous system." The ECS is well documented in its ability to regulate normal sleep patterns so only time will tell with further research on this topic.

If you found this article of value on how hemp works for sleep disorders, share it with others you know may benefit from this information. Hemp oil for sleep is most certainly an option for those struggling with sleep disturbances. If you would like to learn more about hemp or how hemp works for other conditions, you can read the latest research over on our blog.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31120284

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28349316

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6326553/