The Best CBD For Sleep, Gummies or Tinctures or Vape?

Sleep seems to be one of the top 4 reasons that users are turning to CBD. Sleep disorders affect about 3 out of every 10 Canadians. This is a pretty large amount of Canadians not getting a good night's rest. I think we all, regardless if we have sleep problems or not have experienced a restless night. Now imagine that happens to you every night, that's not fun at all. 

We get people asking about what the best CBD is to help with their sleep disorders. We will talk about if there is the "best" CBD product to take when you struggle with a sleep disorder.

Types of Sleep Disorder:

There is no single sleep disorder, but many of them including but not limited to:

Circadian Disorder
Narcolepsy
Restless legs syndrome
Sleep paralysis
Parasomnias
Snoring and sleep apnea
Insomnia

Overall 100 different sleep disorders may be caused by physical and nonphysical factors that have been recognized by the medical community.

Can CBD Even Help Me With My Sleeping Issues?

You are likely at this page, reading this post because you have already been down the path of the prescription drug path. Maybe you never went down that path and went straight to finding a more natural option. Regardless of your situation, you are here now learning. That's Great! 

2019 Study: Cannabidiol in Anxiety and Sleep: A Large Case Series
There was a study done specifically on CBD and Anxiety/Sleep. The results of this study showed that "The final sample consisted of 72 adults presenting with primary concerns of anxiety (n = 47) or poor sleep (n = 25). Anxiety scores decreased within the first month in 57 patients (79.2%) and remained decreased during the study duration. Sleep scores improved within the first month in 48 patients (66.7%) but fluctuated over time. In this chart review, CBD was well tolerated in all but 3 patients."

Anxiety is an interesting point to discuss in this section because anxiety very well may be the root cause of sleep issues. I fought anxiety for about 18 months. I was first on heavy anti-anxiety medication and then transitioned to CBD because of the side effects I was experiencing. When I first started exhibiting Anxiety symptoms it was accompanied by panic attacks which of course caused major sleeping issues. I wish I knew about CBD at that point in my life, which might have helped me curb away from prescription drugs which in my opinion caused me as much grief as the anxiety/panic attacks did.

Another study based in 2014 (which was fairly small) showed that CBD benefited people with REM sleep behavior disorder. 

Aside from the above studies we have referenced, there are not many more to focus on. So where does this leave us, well it simply means that you might have to take the step out of your comfort zone if this is your first time delving into CBD and try it! 

You do not have to look far to find tens of thousands of reviews from real people who have tried CBD (some skeptical to begin) to find that it does help their sleep disorders. Here are some real testimonials from our clients documenting their success with CBD and sleep specific disorders.

As you can see you do not have to look far to find promising testimonials about sleeping and using CBD. This will bring us to our next point, what's the best CBD product to use for sleep?

What's the best CBD product for sleep? Tinctures, Vape, Gummies?

To understand which CBD product is best for sleep we need to know the differences between them and why there are multiple options available to us.

CBD Tinctures:
A CBD tincture is a bottle of carrier liquid (usually MCT oil) as well as the CBD extract itself and possibly some other essential oils which also aid in promoting sleep. When you use a CBD Tincture you would typically put drops under your tongue and allow it to absorb into the blood vessels under your tongue (image 1 below)

This is typically the most popular method of dosing CBD because it's easy and you can vary the dosage very easily (up or down). When starting to use CBD for the first time this is typically the best method to try.

We have a product that is specifically focused on sleep because it contains both CBD and other essential oils that aid in sleep.

Bioavailability of Tinctures via sublingual:
Bioavailability is defined basically as how much of the CBD enters your bloodstream. With any dosing method, you do not absorb 100% of the CBD. When you dose via a tincture method the bioavailability is approx 12% to 35%. The amount of time it stays in your system for is greater then vaping but less than something you ingest (capsules, gummies).

CBD Gummies:
CBD Gummies are similar to capsules. It's a method of ingesting CBD which is then processed by your digestive system. This is a convenient method for children or people sensitive to oils or taste, or simply they want a delicious treat. Typically these are more expensive because of their convenient form of dosing. Certain gummies are focused on sleep because they contain essential oils or other ingredients like melatonin which again can aid and promote sleep.



Bioavailability of Gummies via ingestion:
Bioavailability is defined basically as how much of the CBD enters your bloodstream. With any dosing method, you do not absorb 100% of the CBD. When you dose your CBD by ingestion it will pass through our metabolic and digestive systems, which will filter out a large portion of the CBD, which will greatly reduce bioavailability. This means you typically have to take higher dosages of CBD vs taking a tincture. The bioavailability of CBD with ingestion is usually at an optimistic 10% at the high side. The benefit of this method is that it usually stays in your system the longest.

Vaping CBD:

Vaping your CBD is one of the other ways our customer's aid in promoting a good night's rest. There are different products we offer in regards to vaporizing your CBD. We have both CBD Liquid bottles (which you then use in your vape device), and then we have disposable vape pens which are a one time use. The disposable pens are good for people who want to test vaping or like to switch between flavors easily. The vape bottles of CBD liquid are great for people who already know that vaping works for them and it's far cheaper in the long term. Using your vaping device also means you have something a little better quality and you can get a bigger "hit" which means more mg of CBD per puff.

Bioavailability of CBD Vape Liquid/Pens:

Vaping is one of the highest rates of bioavailability among all the dosing methods. You can obtain 34% to 46%, up to 56% uptake rates. This means that you are losing less than half of the CBD using this method of uptake. This is because when you vaporize your CBD it interacts with your lungs and enters your bloodstream very quickly and effectively. The only downside to this method would be the fact that it does not in your bloodstream as long as the other methods such as tinctures and edibles. If you are vaping your CBD specifically for sleep this might not be the best method unless you are fine with waking up in the middle of the night and taking some puffs on your a vape. The only advantage to this is that you will receive the benefits within a few minutes vs 20 minutes with something such as a tincture or edible (so that might be a benefit in itself).

References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6043845/ 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/insomnia-women-world-sleep-congress-1.5290738
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6326553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6275223/