Many people turn to cannabis or hemp products to help them sleep better. However, some may want to avoid feeling high and assume that CBD will provide a solution without any intoxication. Surprisingly, depending on the dosage, CBD may actually make it more difficult to fall asleep. While cannabinol (CBN) was the first cannabinoid to be discovered, CBD was a close second. In 1940, researchers at the University of Illinois isolated CBN and CBD, but little was known about their effects or chemical structure. It wasn’t until 1963 that the chemical structure of CBD was elucidated, just one year before THC. However, CBD was largely ignored by the research community until 2008 when the first cannabis testing lab was established. Since then, CBD has been the subject of numerous studies. In 1981, a study showed that subjects who received 160mg of CBD reported sleeping significantly more than those who received a placebo. Lower doses did not have the same sedating effect. A 2012 literature review found that high doses of oral CBD (150-600mg) may have therapeutic effects for social anxiety disorder, insomnia, and epilepsy, but can also cause mental sedation. A study on rats in 2013 showed that CBD increased total sleep time and sleep latency. In 2019, a study on humans found that CBD had sleep benefits for some patients, but the data was limited due to inconsistent dosing. However, they did note that higher doses resulted in a longer duration of sleep. This raises the question of what effects a lower dose of CBD may have on sleep. The science of CBD and sleep is complex and illustrates the biphasic properties of many cannabinoids, where low doses produce one effect and higher doses produce a different result.
