Understanding the sleep cycles helps to improve your sleep routine. Could CBD help with a better night’s rest? Do you know how much sleep you should have?
CBD and Your Sleep Routine – How to Sleep Better
Make sure you have a good night’s rest
For many of us, getting a good night’s sleep can sometimes feel like the toss of a coin. Either we have a good night and get plenty of rest, or we wake up feeling more tired than we were at first. Learning how to improve your chances of a good night’s sleep is a sure way to feel more rested. And you’d be surprised at some of the other benefits a restful sleep will give you.
What are the sleep cycles?
Understanding sleep and how to improve it, first starts with understanding the sleep stages and sleep cycle. An average sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes and ideally in a night, you need four to six cycles. Each cycle includes four stages of sleep, three of which form the NREM (non-rapid eye movement), and one REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
Stage One – NREM
This stage is known as the light sleeping stage which typically lasts 5 to 10 minutes. In this stage your body and brain activity begin to slow, also known as ‘dozing off’. When you get woken up from this stage it can feel like you’ve not even been sleeping.
Stage Two – NREM
During stage two of light sleeping your muscles begin to relax as your body temperature drops, and your heart rate and breathing slow down. In this stage there are occasional bursts of brain wave activity called sleep spindles which are believed to help with the storing of memories and turning off your senses so you can sleep uninterrupted. Typically, this lasts about 25 minutes and prepares you for deep sleep.
Stage Three – NREM
The deep sleep stage is when your body is repairing itself by regrowing tissues, strengthening your immune system and building bones and muscle. It’s much harder to be woken from this sleep stage but if you are woken you may experience disorientation and brain fog for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
In the beginning few sleep cycles, this stage will last around 20 to 40 minutes and increasingly gets shorter the more sleep cycles occur. It’s almost important to note that as you get older, you naturally spend less time in this stage and more in stage two.
Stage Four - REM
This is your main dreaming stage where brain activity greatly increases and can even match or exceed your normal brain activity when awake. It’s known as REM sleep because your muscles (except for those you need to breathe) undergo paralysis, but your eyes move rapidly instead. Your breathing gets faster and even your heart rate and blood pressure increase. Usually, the first period of REM sleep happens around 90 minutes into your sleep cycle and lasts around 10 minutes with each recurring REM cycle lasting longer the more you sleep.
How much sleep do we need?
So how much sleep do we actually need? Typically, when we get older, we need less sleep but the cut-off and amount of hours needed can surprise some. From the age of 19 until 64 it is recommended that we get 7-9 hours sleep, and for those over 65 it’s suggested to still get 7-8 hours a night.
Of course, there are some unique cases where a very small number can thrive on less, but many who think they are getting by with less hours may be lacking in health or wellness due to the shorter hours.
Why it is important to get enough sleep
As mentioned in the sleep cycles, getting a good night’s rest is beneficial for our bodies as it allows our bodies to rest, recuperate and literally mend themselves from the day’s work. Achieving enough sleep is important for boosting our immune systems, strengthening emotional processing, improving mood and de-stressing, improving memory function and much more.
It’s easy to notice when we’re not getting enough sleep as you’re likely to have trouble concentrating, forgetfulness, struggling to stay away when inactive, slowness in responding to people, a loss of motivation, increase in moodiness or temper, day-long periods of drowsiness and of course, feeling tired all the time.
How CBD can work with our sleep routine
In the UK, CBD is only available as a supplement, cosmetic or vape product and is not sold for medical purposes. As such, no medical claims can be made with regards to CBD by those selling such products. This is because there is still much research to be done with CBD’s effects, side effects and potential benefits. There have been many studies that have started looking at CBD and the potential benefits it could have for those with sleep disorders, but more research is necessary for certainty.
CBD is often used as part of people’s wellness routines and sleep routines are no different. You can try introducing CBD as part of your bedtime routine through a variety of products such as sleep sprays and lotions which usually contain soothing essential oils that have been noted to potentially aid with sleep for some.
Try 3 of these good sleeping habits
Decide on a set bedtime and waking time
Following a consistent sleep routine helps to train our brains to naturally feel tired around bedtime, and to feel more awake during the day. This means that even on a weekend, getting up at the same time each day can help to create a better relationship with sleep. We hear you; no one wants to get up early on a weekend but give it a try for a couple weeks and notice the difference!
Leave electronics alone and relax at least 30 minutes before bed
Blue light is a real thing, and it really does work against you when you’re trying to get sleepy. Our brains translate blue light as a sign of daytime and naturally stop us from producing melatonin, the chemical that makes us tired. By making sure that you switch off from electronics before bed we give ourselves a better chance of falling asleep undisturbed. Many devices nowadays include filters which switch to a softer red light to help avoid late-night blue light exposure. Switch this on in the evening to help keep blue light to a minimum.
Take a warm bath before bed
Nothing helps you unwind quite like soaking in a hot bath before bed and there’s a reason for that! Scientists have found that mimicking the night-time drop in body temp by enjoying a hot soak and cooling down before bed can trick your body into feeling more tired and relaxed. Drop in a CBD bath bomb, soak up the warmth and get yourself ready for a great night’s sleep.
