CBDA Sleep – What cannabinoids do for sleep
I can’t sleep. I didn’t fall asleep until 1:30 in the morning. I’m just not tired and my brains going at a million miles an hour. Then I wake up at 4am and my brains off to the races again. 5 cups of coffee later and im barely hanging on. This happens way too often and its getting frustrating.
If this sounds familiar we have all been there.
Many underlying conditions, such as stress and anxiety can disturb sleep and lead to chronic pain, both mental and physical, if there is no quality sleep routine.
Relax into sleep with the Natural Spectrum CBDA oil from Natural Dos.
Contents
- What is a good night’s sleep?
- How Anxiety and Stress Affect Sleep
- Does CBDA help sleep?
- Everything you need to know about CBDA oil
- CBN (cannabinol)
- How to use CBD and CBDA for sleep – dosage guide
- How to choose the best CBDA oil
- Conclusions
What is a good night’s sleep?
Sleep is a critical to health, but almost almost a third of Americans report not getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night. Most sleep experts suggests that on average you need to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep, and depending on the individual, you may need up to 9 hours of sleep.
The quality of sleep is also important, and to get restorative sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep are required. Deep sleep (also termed non-REM) comes first and is associated with bodily restoration, such as higher blood flow, cellular repair, and fresh fluids to the brain. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is associated with dreaming, and the processing and storage of memories.
How anxiety and stress affect sleep
Poor sleep is often associated with symptoms of stress and anxiety. Too much anxiety at bedtime can disrupt sleep, and poor sleep itself can cause anxiety. About a third of patients with insomnia report anxiety issues. Clinical diagnostic symptoms for generalized anxiety disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder both use sleep disorder as category for diagnosis.
In a recent study of insomnia and anxiety disorders, they found that in about 18% of patients insomnia appeared before the onset of anxiety. However, in around 44% of patients, anxiety symptoms were present before insomnia conditions occurred, with the remaining showing that symptoms of both were present at the same time.
Stress is largely dependent on the activation of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis, the system responsible for the fight or flight response when we are confronted with a threat. While this is helpful when a physical threat is present, activation of HPA during everyday events, such as work deadlines and road rage, can lead to chronic stress and cortisol (stress hormone) production. Excessive activation of the HPA axis and elevated levels of cortisol are classic indicators of stress and may have significant impacts on some of the sleep cycles.
Research suggests that the endocannabinoid system is tightly integrated with mood and psychological state, and may play critical roles in anxiety, stress and depression through the HPA axis. Early research suggests that modulating the endocannabinoid system may provide a route to sleep aid, highlighting the potential benefits of how CBDA and CBD helps sleep. Additionally, long term analysis of endogenous endocannabinoids and depressive symptoms were found to be significantly inversely correlated, more than cortisol. This suggests that lower levels of endocannabinoids may predict certain states of depression, further evidence that modulating the endocannabinoid system could have mental health benefits.
If you are suffering from chronic stress and anxiety, its important to talk with a medical professional about best ways to approach.
Does CBDA help sleep?
Most people are surprised at how well CBDA and CBD can be used to help with anxiety and stress. It may be that some of the underlying factors that are causing sleep disturbances are associated with anxiety and stress at night.
There are many studies showing the potential benefits that cannabinoid oil supplementation can have on sleep quality. For example, a pre clinical study in vivo found that CBD was able to block anxiety induced REM sleep disruption, indicating a positive association between CBD oil and better sleep.
There are multiple clinical trials testing the effects of CBD oil for sleep in patients with sleep disturbances or diagnosed insomnia. This study using CBD capsules found that 25-75 mg of CBD after dinner improved some scores of sleep quality on the PSQI.
There are a lot of the sleep CBD products on the market, but since CBDA oil is new, there are much fewer options to buy and studies assessing CBDA benefits are just starting to be released. Since both CBD and CBDA act on the CB2 receptor in the endocannabinoid system, their anxiety and sleep benefits may be similar. In this recent study, CBD and CBDA had similar interaction kinetics with CB2 receptors, but CBDA was able to increase expression of CB2 receptors significantly more than CBD.
There appears to be significant overlap in the function of CBD and CBDA in the endocannabinoid system. With the enhanced absorption of CBDA compared to CBD, it may be a superior method to modulate the endocannabinoid system to help with better sleep outcomes.
Everything you need to know about CBDA oil
Most people have heard of CBD oil, but are not familiar with the more powerful CBDA (cannabidiolic acid) that is the naturally occurring cannabinoid in the hemp plant. The cannabis plant has over 100 different cannabinoids that are naturally occurring before processing.
During conventional purification of hemp oil, CBDA is converted to CBD through a process call decarboxylation. Only recently has Natural Dos created a new technology to purify all the acidic cannabinoids from the hemp plant without decarboxylation. Another form of hemp extract is using a press, which creates a raw form of oil. This is another great method to extract various cannabinoids in their naturally occurring acidic state.
Absorption
Why is this important? New research suggests that the acidic cannabinoids, like CBDA, have unique properties, such as enhanced absorption, which confers substantial benefits for overall health. Recently published clinical data has found that CBDA oil absorption is over 450% more absorptive than CBD oil.
How well the body absorbs a compound is critical to how much benefit you get from it. Many clinical trials using conventional cannabinoids, such as CBD, have found that you need higher doses to achieve therapeutic properties. For example, in this study on reducing anxiety from public speaking, 600mg of CBD oil was needed to relieve symptoms.
Endocannabinoid system
Cannabinoids interact with the body through the endocannabinoid system, and while each one has a few overlapping similarities with the others, they also have unique properties that work in different ways. CBD primarily works through the cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2), and CBDA has recently been shown to as well. In addition, it also was able to increase CB2 receptors while CBD decreased it expression.
The endocannabinoid system has many components in addition to cannabinoid receptors, and one of them is the 5HT1A receptor, commonly associated with serotonin function. The 5HT1A receptor has recently been implicated as the critical target for CBDA in animal models of nausea and anxiety. A modified CBDA (HU-580; methylated CBDA) and CBDA itself, was able to activate the 5HT1A receptor, and prevent signs of anxiety and nausea in an in vivo model. The 5HT1A receptor is a common target for antidepressants, specifically the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) class, since it is involved in regulating serotonin levels in the nervous system.
Anti Inflammatory
Inflammation, activation of the immune system or cellular immunity, is a common underlying process for many pathologies. There is a significant body of research showing how inflammation may disturb sleep function. A 2015 study in patients with depression and high inflammation found that inhibiting a common pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNF (tumor necrosis factor), was able to improve sleep. Sleep disturbance is one of the most common reports in patients with depression, and the connection with activation of inflammatory states is a well noted connection between the two.
The different benefits of CBDA to sleep disturbances may include its unique anti inflammatory properties. A number of studies are now showing that CBDA can inhibit COX2 (cyclooxygenase 2), a critical enzyme that drives inflammation. The COX2 enzyme is widely appreciated for its role in general inflammation processes, and is a primary target for a lot of NSAIDs like ibuprofen. In fact, anti inflammatory COX2 inhibitors, such as Celecoxib, have been used with some success to treat depression. Animal models of inflammation and depression found that COX2 inhibition decreased TNFcytokine increased in some parts of the brain.
Further research into the effects of CBDA in inflammation, anxiety, and sleep are needed, but there is potentially interesting mechanisms that could underly its potential benefits.
CBN (cannabinol)
You may have seen that many sleep products in the cannabinoid space have CBN as a significant ingredient, but what is it, and why is it used?
The CBN cannabinoid is produced when cannabis plants are exposed to heat or oxygen (the high concentrations of which can occur in older plants), and is breakdown product of THC. It’s not known to have psychoactive properties, but is often used in combination with other cannabinoids for sleep. It is reported to produce a drowsy effect, and CBN is often combined with THC, CBD, or CBDA in sleep product formulations. Despite many people reporting it helps with staying asleep or falling asleep, there are limited clinical CBN studies on its effects for improving sleep.
How to use CBD and CBDA for sleep – Dosage Guide
Most sleep CBD products come in low dosages, which may be compromising their efficacy. A lot of clinical studies that find benefits from a CBD product use much higher doses than what is typically marketed. Since CBDA has much higher absorption than CBD, a regular dose of CBDA at 30mg to 50mg will reach the same blood levels as a 250mg CBD dose, a normal dose of Natural Dos CBDA oils should be sufficient.
We recommend taking 30mg to 50mg of CBDA 1-2 hours before bed. It is important to incorporate it into a night time routine for at least 2 weeks to see if CBDA oils are the right sleep aid for you.
The form of the product may have some differences with respect to efficacy. For example, CBD or CBDA drops (tinctures) may have better absorption when applied under the tongue for 30 seconds, compared to CBDA and CBD capsules.
How to choose the best CBDA oil
Whenever you shop for a full spectrum or broad spectrum CBDA oil, we recommend to not choose an isolate, as you will be missing out on the entourage effect. The entourage effect, where having all the cannabinoids provides greater potential benefit, has been widely reported, and some studies indicate a significant difference.
Many people use d9-THC or d8-THC in conjunction with CBD and CBDA for help going to sleep. However, we do not recommend a dose over 10mg as THC causes anxiety and paranoia in some people at lower doses.
Natural Dos has developed a purification process to create a Natural Spectrum CBDA oil, which has all the acidic cannabinoids isolated from the hemp plant. Every product comes with a full CoA, validating potency and purity of the product. This is a must when choosing the best CBDA product. To see how to read and interpret a cannabinoid CoA, check out our CoA Guide.
Conclusions
There is a lot of overlap between how well you sleep and anxiety, stress, and inflammation. How your daily routine affects each one separately, and in combination, could provide significant benefit as they all appear to be interconnected.
The benefits of CBD and CBDA oil to sleep are the subject of ongoing research, but may result from their numerous benefits in helping regulate the endocannabinoid system.
If you are on medications and are looking for benefit from CBDA oil, please speak with your physician first. There may be drug-drug interactions for some medications that could affect liver function.
