Will CBD Make Me Tired?
CBD can help you sleep, but CBD can help you stay awake too. [Guide to know how CBD works]
How does that work?
We would need some kind of superdrug, a substance clever enough to just about read your mind.
And yet many CBD companies claim this newest natural alternative is an ‘adaptogen’ that helps your body adapt accordingly to any kind of physical, chemical or biological stress – whether too much or too little.
Far from being snake oil there are studies that prove the ability of ‘true adaptogens’ like ginseng to help the body recover its vital balance, known as homeostasis.
CBD oil has not been named among the few adaptogens from the natural world, though studies have proven CBD’s role in promoting homeostasis in the body.
Oftentimes it’s the THC in cannabis sativa that can make you tired, while CBD has the totally opposite effect.
Some studies go so far as to suggest CBD helps you sleep when you need to, and stay alert when you need to.
Here’s a fascinating study from the 1980s we stumbled across that just might answer the burning question: will CBD make me tired?
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CBD will make you ‘alert’ – not tired
Scientific research into CBD has gone through a few waves of interest.
In the 1940s British chemist Robert Cahn first identified cannabinol (a type of cannabinoid).
In the 1960s, Israeli professor Raphael Mechoulam tried to figure out why cannabis made you ‘high’ – his team isolated cannabidiol or CBD in 1963.
But it wasn’t what they were looking for.
A year later Mechoulam discovered Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and a series of studies comparing THC and CBD blossomed through to the 1980s.
After the US removed CBD from the Controlled Substances Act in 2018, CBD research has exploded once again.
But one of those funky 1980s studies has fascinating insights into the dramatic differences between CBD and THC, the two most famous cannabinoids.
It was 1982 when Antonio Zuardi from the University of Sao Paolo pumped participants with either THC (0.5mg/kg of body weight), CBD (1mg/kg of body weight), a mixture of both THC and CBD, a placebo, or diazepam.
They asked participants to write about the effects, giving researchers a ‘descriptive summary’ that turned into a fascinating bar chart.
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The bar chart represents treatment comparisons with the placebo during the second hour after ingestion of the substances.
They noted in particular the ‘drowsy’ effects of diazepam (blank white bar) which differed dramatically from CBD (horizontal line bar).
All along the x-axis, CBD contrasted dramatically with both THC and the THC+CBD mixture to give participants sensations of being ‘strong’ rather than feeble, ‘proficient’ rather than incompetent, ‘quick-witted’ rather than mentally slow, ‘clear-minded’ rather than muzzy, ‘tranquil’ rather than troubled’ and ‘gregarous’ rather than withdrawn.
The results are amazing, not least for the fact that ‘muzzy’ was considered a scientific term!
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So how does CBD also make me sleep better?
In another part of the study, researchers conducted spontaneous interviews with the 40 participants andust asked for the most significant experiences off the bat.
This is what THC users described:
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- Difficulty concentrating
- Dizziness
- Change in body image
- Dry mouth
- Depersonalisation
- Disconnected thoughts
- Change in perception of time
- Visions of geometric forms
- Paranoid ideas
- Sensation of cold
- Tiredness
- Paresthesia (tingling sensation in hands)
Alright, and what about the descriptions after taking CBD? – I hear you asking.
Sure, they boiled down to just one phrase:
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- Sleepiness
Note the difference in that ‘sleepiness’ is not ‘tiredness’.
The Dictionary of Cambridge defines tiredness as feeling of ‘needing sleep’ and sleepiness as just ‘wanting sleep’.
The study is interesting as researchers claimed they ‘verified’ how ‘CBD’ blocks the anxiety provoked by delta 9-THC and also extended to marijuana-like effects and other subjective alterations induced by delta 9-THC’.
For anyone seeking relief from both anxiety or stress during the day and wanting a good night’s rest, perhaps this sums it up: CBD can help you – more than taking nothing – to stay alert, quick-witted, clear-minded, tranquil, strong and proficient when you need to be.
If you don’t need to be any of these things, then CBD puts you in the perfect mindstate to get a good night’s rest.
Until science comes up with a more in-depth analysis of CBD’s ‘adaptogen’ status and how this works on a biological level, this descriptive study from the 1980s does a pretty good job.
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Will the THC in CBD make me tired?
Our CBD oils at Pure Organic CBD come in two main types: full spectrum and broad spectrum.
Full spectrum CBD oils contain the full range of 120+ cannabinoids from the cannabis sativa plant.
This includes THC, but in concentrations below 0.2% to meet legal requirements in the EU, UK and Switzerland where we grow our CBD.
This is a tiny amount compared to the 40% THC concentration in recreational and street marijuana.
You’d need to take entire bottles of our CBD to start getting psychoactive effects.
Broad spectrum CBD oils have the THC completely removed.
These products are most attractive to athletes or anyone who needs to pass a drugs test that prohibits the presence of THC in your system.
Regardless of buying full spectrum or broad spectrum CBD, the THC content will not make you tired.
In most cases, the CBD will counteract any negative effects and even promote the collective ‘entourage effects’ that brings out the best in each cannabinoid.