I TRIED CANNABIS FOR SLEEP – HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED!

Hey, what's up? Let's talk sleep and weed. I'll be more scientific. I'll say sleep and cannabis. I'm here in my bedroom, and yeah, I do have cannabis by my bedside. There are subtle nuances, though, to this. So this video might go on for a little while, but I hope you find it really educational. So cannabis is a plant, and it's got more than 100 different cannabinoids in it. I think most people know that by now that it goes beyond just like the psychedelic thc. And amongst the most recognized cannabinoids for sleep, even though there are some others, are tetrahydrocannabyl, tetrahydrocannabinol, if I can pronounce that right, THC and cbd, cannabidiol. So to understand how these work, let's first talk about your endocannabinoid system. Okay. Your endocannabinoid system is a biological system in your brain and your body. It's made up of neurotransmitters, chemical messengers and receptors. Your and it's akin to like a lock and key mechanism, how it works. So your body naturally produces endocannabinoids. You make the same stuff that weed makes, and it allows for a lot of stuff to happen. Physiological functions, including relaxation and de stressing and anxiety management. Cannabinoids that we would find from cannabis or the endocannabinoids we make ourselves, trigger two different receptors. CB1, those are found in your central nervous system, and CB2, those are actually found in your immune system. Now, the CB1 receptor is the one that is usually focused on for sleep because it's found in a lot of these sleep wake regions of the body. So when I say lock key mechanism, what that means is that cannabinoids in cannabis closely resemble those naturally produced by your body. So it allows them to fill fit into the same receptors or locks. Okay, so whether it's an endocannabinoid your body makes or a cannabinoid from cannabis, it fits into these receptors. And THC binds to the CB1 receptor, making it something that a lot of people choose as a sleep aid. It influences neurotransmitters like gaba, the same stuff that gets put into your body when you have a glass of wine, that exerts a calming effect on the nervous system. And adenosine, which is a sleep driver, increases sleep pressure. And together, GABA and adenosine can induce feelings of calmness and drowsiness. But there are some subtle nuances here in terms of thc versus CBD versus others, like say, cbn. There's even differences in terms of edible versus smoking. You know, for example, there's one study that found that smoking marijuana disrupts sleep more than consuming an edible. Another study found that an Indica strain that has a higher CBD content can be better for sleep than a Sativa strain. So let's get into some of the nuances here. THC is a psychoactive compound, the primary psychoactive compound found in cannabis that's associated with the high that a lot of people feel. CBD as you probably know, is the non psychoactive component that's found in cannabis that won't make you feel high, but still has a lot of therapeutic effects. They go beyond just sleep, you know, fighting inflammation, for example, example. Now, THC and CBD affect sleep differently based on the receptors they bind with. THC primarily interacts with the CB1 receptors. So that's going to promote drowsiness and increase sleep onset. CBD interacts with CB1 receptors, CB2 receptors, serotonin receptors, and other receptors that foster relaxation and improve sleep quality. So in my opinion, CBD is actually operating on a greater set of full body functions related to sleep. Now let's talk about what actually happens when you consume these prior to sleep. So THC can facilitate pretty quick sleep onset. It can reduce what is called sleep on sleep latency, how long it takes you to fall asleep. But there are potential consequences. I'll explain momentarily. CBD has fewer adverse effects, but you don't fall asleep as fast when you use cbd. So, so CBD gives you better sleep, but you don't fall asleep as fast. THC helps you fall asleep faster, but you basically get as I'm about to get into worse sleep. The reason for that is that THC increases deep sleep, but it reduces REM sleep. Rapid eye movement sleep. Why is that an issue? Well, rapid eye movement sleep is when you dream, when learning and memory consolidation take place, when your body processes emotions. And a lot of people who use cannabis, that includes THC strains, they actually report not dreaming and they lose out on REM sleep. And the brain often is tired during the day because it's attempting to recover lost REM sleep during later stages of sleep. So basically you're affecting sleep architecture deleteriously if you're using a THC rich strain to sleep versus cbd. The advantage of THC is that if you're in pain, if you're extremely wound up and you need to relax quickly, if you just basically need to lights out, really, really Quick, yes, there could be a time and a place for thc, but don't fool yourself into thinking that especially, especially if the THC is not combined with a decent amount of cbd, that you're not going to have a deleterious effect on sleep. Now when it comes to insomnia, insomnia has actually been looked into when it comes to cannabis and there is a reduction in insomnia when you are using THC rich strains for sleep. The problem is that there is also a withdrawal effect, meaning if you use THC to battle insomnia versus a better approach to insomnia, which is in my opinion would be something like cognitive behavioral therapy. And I won't get into a deep, deep treatise on insomnia right now. But the problem is that you can actually, as soon as you stop using the cannabis, have more insomnia and it can be very, very hard to withdraw from it, especially if it is a THC rich strain of cannabis. So you do need to be careful because tolerance can build up and then you can have withdrawal symptoms afterwards. If you don't have your precious cannabis on hand, especially your THC rich strains, then what can happen is you can actually make the insomnia worse. So you do need to be careful with that. So let's go ahead and get into how I actually use CBD for sleep. So first of all, I'm not a fan of being dependent on anything for sleep. Now I get incredible sleep when I use cbd, a CBD rich strain that's very low in thc. Now I use organic full spectrum CBD which has a lot of the anti inflammatory components as well. This is the strongest stuff I've been able to find. This is what I use. It's made by Element Health, it's their advanced maximum strength formula. So if you look at the research on CBD in people who, who have sleep disorders, a lot of times they can sleep at 100 to 200 milligrams of CBD. Okay. And healthy people who just want to like go lights out really, really deep for an incredible day, the next day and not be hungover, you can still do like 300-400mg of CBD and get really good sleep. But the trick is to be cautious with getting excess THC unless you have a ton of anxiety and you just need to use it here and there. Some people even use it on airplanes for example. Be careful, you know, proceed at your own risk with legality issues, etc, make sure the plane is taken off before you get High because you don't want to be wandering around an airport high. But it can be helpful for, for travel. So anyways, this is what I use, the Element Health Maximum Strength cbd. If you're watching this video, I'll put a link to this stuff. Stuff. Probably my favorite CBD is my favorite CBD actually. So they also make gummies like this. And These gummies are 25mgs of CBD. I kind of like them cold. I keep them in the refrigerator. You can chew on them. It's very, very similar to the other stuff. But again there's, there's nothing funky in here. No THC or anything. But then they have their extreme potency. Now this is thc, CBD and cbn. It's interesting. The studies on CBN show they can be like Valium for helping you to fall asleep faster. This is my emergency pack. Okay, this is super anxious day. Been struggling with sleep, gotten back from a long international trip, dealing with jet lag. I've got a really long flight and I just want to knock myself out. So this is my secret special stack because it has the THC in it. This will get you high but at the same time if there is a situation which you're okay, trading impaired sleep architecture for really dealing with a ton of stress and anxiety or wanting to fall asleep super duper quick. This stuff can be highly effective for that. So in a nutshell, if you're going to use cannabis for sleep, it can work. A lot of times you need pretty high dosages to actually get the full on effects. We're talking like 300 to 400 migs. I personally am a 2 to 3 dropper full of this. Some people feel super relaxed and knock out on one dropper full because it's maximum strength. For the gummies, I'm a two to three gummy guy. For the cbd. For the THC rich strain, maybe I'm a lightweight, but if I eat two of these, I'm getting 6 milligrams total of THC. That's more than enough for me to conk out quick. So a few different options there. But anyways I will include a link and a discount code to the Element Health stuff along with this video. You can leave your questions, your comments and your feedback along with the video. But I get asked about cannabis and sleep so much that I thought this would be helpful for you. So thank you so much for watching. Check out the Element Health stuff for sure. Give me your own feedback on cannabis and sleep. And remember, be responsible with every way that you use cannabis, especially the THC rich strains. Thanks for watching.