What’s better than a good night’s rest? It’s something that everybody wants but doesn’t necessarily have access to. Chronic mental health conditions and physical ailments can be a constant roadblock to getting the quality rest that you need to be your best person! There are all kinds of purported remedies that can help you sleep, but not all of them are effective, or they aren’t effective for most people. However, there are two overlooked substances that have a promising future in helping people get the rest they need. They are CBD and melatonin.

How CBD and Melatonin Help You Get Better Sleep.

Both CBD and melatonin may help you have better sleep, but how they accomplish that feat are very, very different. CBD (a cannabinoid that is derived from hemp) still mostly only has early research showing it may provide positive benefits to the body. However, that research is quite promising. There is evidence that CBD can help resolve anxiety, depression, and can be an effective treatment for inflammatory disorders. If you have trouble sleeping because of anxiety or because you have chronic pain that makes falling asleep and staying asleep hard, then CBD might be the answer you are looking for!¹ However, how or if CBD is able to directly affect your sleep cycle is still largely unknown. This is not the case for melatonin, though!

Melatonin is a naturally occurring human hormone that directly impacts your sleep cycle. Unlike CBD, there is a healthy body of research showing how melatonin may help correct sleep disorders (mostly because melatonin has never been illegal, whereas CBD has only been federally legal for a few years.) Melatonin is frequently used to treat sleep disorders, including insomnia and delayed sleep phase disorder. It essentially helps correct your natural sleep cycle into being able to sleep at normal times at night. Many also use melatonin to either prevent jet lag or to treat it when they are suffering from it, basically allowing them to reboot their sleep cycle to the specific time zone they find themselves in. Even though there is a lot of research available, most of it is still inconclusive on the effectiveness of melatonin to help sleep, but it is still often suggested by medical professionals to those who appear to have an unhealthy sleep cycle.²

Can I use CBD and melatonin together?

As far as we know, yes! CBD and melatonin don’t interact with each other directly, nor does taking them together result in an unexpected or more powerful effect (unlike taking CBD and THC together, which can enhance the positive effects of both while reducing the negative effects of THC). Taking both together may possibly treat multiple problems at once, and many companies have begun to sell CBD-melatonin infused nasal sprays and edible products to treat both emotional and physical problems that may be preventing sleep as well as actual sleep cycle disorders that may be preventing you from getting adequate sleep.

Research into CBD is still fairly new, but research into specifically how melatonin and CBD interact with one another is essentially non-existent at this point. If you plan on making regular use of both, you should consult your primary care physician. They can make sure that melatonin and CBD are going to interact with any existing medications you take, as well as helping you navigate any side-effects you experience while taking both together.

References

1. Ferguson, Sian. “CBD for Insomnia: Can It Help?” Healthline, 1 Aug. 2019, www.healthline.com/health/cbd-for-insomnia#overview. Accessed 12 July 2020.
2. Mary Jo DiLonardo. “What Is Melatonin?” WebMD, WebMD, 19 June 2017, www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/what-is-melatonin. Accessed 12 July 2020.