How to use CBD for sleep: A beginner’s guide

Creating a healthy nighttime routine

Anyone who has suffered from difficulties sleeping will know that sleep isn’t one of those things that you can force. Your mind and body need to peacefully fall into sleep in a natural and gentle manner.

Because of this, it is very common that high-achieving personality types suffer from sleep difficulties more so than other personality types. High-achievers are used to work their way to a goal and tend to misunderstand the necessity to having a nightly wind-down routine in which they let-go of work and relax into sleep.

Follow these 6 simple suggestions and you will feel your sleep gradually improve over time.

1. Regularity

Human beings are creatures of habit and we gradually teach our minds and bodies to respond in certain ways to specific stimulus. Reset your internal clock by waking up and going to sleep at the same time every night to re-teach your body when the resting time is.

Most of us have an alarm set to wake us up in the morning but you might want to set an alarm to remind you to start your nighttime routine in the evening as well.

It is also important to remember that, just like with most things in life, you need consistency and patience to incorporate a healthy nighttime routine. Think of it like exercise, one workout won’t get your in shape.

2. Temperature control

Keep your bedroom at a cool 65°F during sleeping hours. This may sound like too cold of a room but you body is actually hard-coded to use the cooler and darker period of the night to get its most restorative sleep.

3. Keep it dark

Darkness helps your body release a hormone called melatonin to induce sleep. By eliminating all or as much light as possible in your bedroom, you are giving your body the best possible preparation to get deep restorative sleep.

Keep small charger lights and windows covered as best you can and put your phone on “do not disturb” mode.

4. Reduce caffeine & alcohol

Caffeine has a half-life of around 5 hours. That means that a cup of coffee at 6pm leaves you with 50% off the caffeine still active in your system at 11pm.

Caffeine and alcohol both affect your sleep negatively so you are advised to keep them to a minimum after 2pm.

5. The hour before bedtime

The hour before going to bed is crucial for getting a full night of uninterrupted sleep. This is the hour that you should use to wind-down and prepare your body for rest. Turn off all screens, consume some CBD and make an agenda for tomorrow.

Preparing for tomorrow allows you to let go of some potentially stressful thoughts and gives you a sense of calm.

If you have a stretching, meditation or other routine that you perform in the night, this is the perfect time to do it. Just make sure that you do not exert too much effort that wakes your body up.

Also, stay away from mentally challenging tasks like crossword puzzles, chess or other tasks that activate your creative and analytical brain.

6. Falling back asleep

If you still find that you cannot fall asleep or that you wake up in the night, don’t lay in your bed awake. Get out of bed and go into another room performing mundane tasks. Have a cup of tea or take a few more drops of CBD and let your body get back into a state of rest.

In a few minutes you will feel sleepy again and can get back in bed to fall back asleep.

How to use CBD for sleep preparation in your nighttime routine

When it comes to taking CBD, there is no one size fits all approach, as the best CBD for sleep (product and dosage) will change from one person to the next.

Firstly, there are lots of different delivery methods available to choose from and, secondly, getting the perfect dose right can be tricky at the beginning.

The product you choose should be tailored to your needs and preferences (see more on this below) and the ideal dose for you may depend on your age, weight, metabolism, and biochemistry.

If you’re new to CBD, it’s important to start with a lower dose and gradually work your way up to achieve the results you need.

However, at lower doses, CBD can have a mildly stimulating effect, improving your focus, alertness, and motivation levels, which is obviously the opposite of what you want to achieve. So, what product should you take? What dose should you start at? And when should you take it?

Choosing the right product

In order to choose the right CBD product to help you rest, you should start by choosing a reliable and reputable company to source your hemp-derived CBD products. In other words, don’t buy your CBD from a gas station, and definitely not on Amazon, but instead, do some research and find a company that uses organic, USA-grown hemp and gets its products tested by third parties (like us!).

You can start by thinking about the kind of help you need. For example, do you have problems falling asleep, or staying asleep?

Falling asleep

If you need help falling asleep then something fast-acting, like CBD flower, could be the best choice. Smoking a CBD joint is one of the quickest ways to get CBD into your system, although it will also leave your system the fastest too.

The second fastest delivery method is via sublingual dosing. CBD oil drops will allow you to get a high dose of CBD quickly and you’ll start feeling the effects in as little as 20 minutes. Our CBD + Melatonin Sleep Drops are a good alternative.

If you’re struggling to fall asleep because you’re suffering from localized discomfort, you might also benefit from rubbing a topical CBD cream or lotion directly onto the affected area.

Staying asleep

However, if you’re looking for a CBD product that will last all night to help keep you relaxed, then an oral dose of CBD will probably be a better option for you.

CBD gummies and capsules will take longer to take effect, but they’ll also stay in your system for up to six to eight hours, making them a great option for people that can fall asleep with few problems, but toss and turn all night, waking up time and time again. Try our Sleep Gummies for a good option.

CBD oil drops can also be ingested orally by simply swallowing them or adding your dose to your nighttime beverage.

How much CBD for sleep?

When using CBD for nighttime relaxation, we recommend that you start by taking around 20-25mg of CBD. If you wanted to try out CBD during the day, to improve your mood and/or relax you, we’d recommend you start with a much lower dose, but as stated previously, nighttime doses are higher other doses.

If you increase your dose on subsequent nights, then be sure to make a note of the exact dose you took, so that you can work out the most effective dosage for you.

How to take CBD oil for nighttime relaxation

If you’ve chosen to take our full-spectrum premium CBD oil, you’ll want to start with half a dropper. (we’ve put handy markers on the side of the dropper to help you measure your dose) and the best way to take CBD oil drops is under the tongue.

Place your drops under your tongue and hold the liquid in place for 30-60 seconds, to allow the CBD to enter your bloodstream through the capillaries located there.

After a couple of nights, if you want to increase your dose, then just measure out either ¾’s of a dropper or a full dropper next time you go to bed.

When to take the oil

It will take around 20 to 30 minutes for sublingual dosing to take effect, so we recommend that you take your dose around 15 to 20 minutes before you go to bed.

Does CBD help your sleep routine?

If you’re suffering from poor nighttime routines, there could be a number of underlying causes, including anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and sleep apnea, and whether CBD can help you personally may depend on your reasons for not sleeping well. Always get medical help if your sleep issues persist and remember that CBD is NOT meant to treat or cure anything.

Our CB1 receptors in our brain are in charge of regulating our circadian rhythms, however, how CBD may be able to influence this is yet unknown.

We have gummies and CBD sleep drops (with added melatonin) to help you achieve more healthy sleep. They’re available in our online shop and we’ve offered a generous discount for when you buy both together, to help you work out which works best for you.

CBD is natural sleep aid that is well-tolerated, even at high doses. However, if you have any previous health conditions that you take medication for, speak to your physician before taking CBD as there are some possible drug interactions (for example, CBD can affect blood thinners the same way a grapefruit can).