I tried CBD gummies for better sleep and here’s what happened

It isn’t the hack to waking up fresh after four hours of snooze time, like I thought it would be

Millennials are touted to be the most stressed generation, partly due to the unending need to constantly do more and be better. While most of my life seems to have some sort of an order to it, my sleep schedule has, more often than not, been out of whack. I’ve always been a night owl, but with nothing to do apart from work all day during the pandemic, getting enough sleep at night didn’t seem like a priority. Soon enough, I found that I couldn’t get myself to sleep before 5 am, even when I had to wake up by 9:55 am for a 10 am call.

This is when I decided to give CBD (cannabidiol) gummies a shot. I figured, it’s probably a better alternative to anything else since it’s all-natural and not addictive. Maybe a couple of weeks on it would help me get a rhythm in place. Here’s what I learned.

CBD gummies are not a hack to getting more sleep in fewer hours

I tried the Winged Wellness Sleepy CBD Gummies for a couple of weeks. They’re formulated with 10mg of CBD, melatonin, evening primrose oil, 5-HTP, GABA and L-theanine, all of which are meant to help you fall asleep and improve your sleep quality. Firstly, they taste like sour candy, so my initial thought was, “This is great, I’ve found a hack to sleep better and it tastes so good!” But turns out, even when consuming a formulation that is so targeted, you really do need to sleep.

I’ve never tried sleep supplements of any kind before, and my biggest learning was that you still need to get a solid 7-8 hours of sleep to make the most of the full effect. I found myself taking these by 3 am, sleeping an hour later and waking up five hours later for work. While I did wake up feeling like I needed more sleep–since I clearly wasn’t getting enough–it was how I felt later in the day that got me thinking. I’d find that come 4 pm, and an intense grogginess would set in, nudging me to squeeze a 30-minute nap into my day. The nights I didn’t consume the gummies, I still woke up feeling far from fresh, but I didn’t need the evening nap since there wasn’t a supplement in my body trying to get me to sleep.

I realised soon enough that sleep supplements are not meant to help you get better sleep in fewer hours. They’re supposed to help improve the quality of sleep you experience. Yes, you still need to sleep at a decent hour, for at least 6-8 hours and no, you can’t take them at 3 am and expect to wake up fresh the next day. There’s no way to hack biology.

CBD for sleep: Should you try it?

If you’re someone who does go to bed at a decent hour, and still struggles to wake up fresh, CBD gummies could be the answer. “Many people can suffer from a racing mind or be unable to fall asleep because of the stresses of the day. A major drawback to melatonin-only sleep supplements is that often too high of a dosage is in the product and will produce a groggy hangover the next day. CBD helps to control the stress response, calm the mind and prepare our bodies for rest, thereby making it easier to fall asleep quickly,” explains Timothy Mount, product formulator and master herbalist at Winged. Along with a combination of melatonin and CBD, “nutrients like 5-HTP, GABA and L-Theanine, when taken before bed, help to increase the depth of sleep and support the body to experience more REM sleep and be in deep stages of sleep longer.”

Siddharth Shivkumar, founder and CEO, CBDAY, an online marketplace for hemp and CBD-based wellness products, explains how melatonin and CBD work differently to aid sleep. “The right consumers for CBD sleep gummies are those with sleep disorders and anxiety. Melatonin is more concerned with the timing of when we fall asleep than with keeping us asleep all night. While CBD may help with sleep interruption during the night, melatonin may help with sleep onset—this combination helps with overall sleep. CBD, unlike THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), has no psychotropic effects. While marijuana usage can lead to dependency, current research by the World Health Orgnization (WHO) indicates that CBD is not addictive.” While CBD is well-tolerated by most people, Shivkumar warns that you can experience side-effects like mild sleepiness, drowsiness, lowered blood pressure or diarrhoea. When in doubt, it’s best to consult a sleep therapist before starting on a new supplement.

Naturally, when consuming supplements that are meant to put you into a deeper sleep, it’s important to ensure that you sleep for long enough to let them do their job as well. If you are in a situation wherein you may not be able to get even four hours of sleep, be careful about the dosage of sleep gummies you choose to consume. “Every milligram of melatonin takes about two hours to process in the body,” explains Mount. “Sleepy Gummies contain 2mg melatonin, so the effects of that nutrient should be done after four hours. A Sleepy Gummy should still be effective for that amount of sleep. Anything less than four hours may result in a difficulty waking up or a feeling of sleepiness. In those instances, if a woman is concerned about needing to get only a short amount of sleep, half a gummy may be a good dosage to try,” concludes Mount.

Also Read: Having trouble sleeping? We may have found you a solution

Also Read: Could CBG be the skincare and wellness hero you’re looking for?

Also Read: Sexual wellness brand MyMuse wants to change the way you talk about intimacy