Sleep Disorders / Insomnia

If you cannot sleep, you are in very large company. Sleep disorders affect an estimated thirty per cent of the adult population, and insomnia is the most common form by a wide margin. Poor sleep is rarely a standalone problem, either. It amplifies pain, erodes mood, damages concentration and raises accident risk, which is why treating it well tends to improve several other things at once.

Acute Insomnia and Chronic Insomnia

Almost everyone has experienced acute insomnia: the sleepless night before an exam, a wedding or a flight, followed by normal sleep once the event passes. That resolves on its own.

Chronic insomnia is a different condition. It generally means disturbed sleep at least three nights a week, sustained over months at a time. Clinicians further distinguish sleep-onset insomnia, sleep-maintenance insomnia, mixed insomnia, comorbid insomnia and early-morning-awakening insomnia, and the distinction matters because each responds to a different treatment emphasis.

Signs worth taking seriously:

- Sleep disturbance following a significant life event such as bereavement, job loss or a diagnosis, lasting from days to months

- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep three or more nights a week

- Persistent tossing and turning

- Repeated night waking with thirty minutes or more spent trying to get back to sleep

- Daytime mental and physical exhaustion out of proportion to your activity level

- Waking substantially earlier than intended

What Drives Insomnia

Underlying medical conditions and stressful life events are the two largest categories, but the list of contributors is long: bereavement, shift work and changing schedules, caffeine, alcohol, large late meals, cigarettes, jet lag, certain prescription medications, stress and anxiety, indigestion, and health conditions including arthritis, chronic pain, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and depression.

Women of every age are considerably more likely than men to develop long-term sleep disorders. It is most common in older women, but it can begin in childhood.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Some patients sleep a full night and wake up exhausted anyway. Chronic fatigue syndrome, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, is a distinct condition and one of the hardest to diagnose, because its symptoms overlap heavily with other disorders. Diagnosis is usually a process of exclusion involving multiple tests. Its causes remain unclear, though genetics, stress, trauma, environment and coexisting physical or psychological illness all appear to contribute. Women over forty are diagnosed more often than men, and cases have been identified in patients as young as twelve.

Typical symptoms include:

- Exhaustion that sleep does not resolve

- Difficulty sleeping

- Extreme depletion after physical exertion

- Memory problems

- Difficulty concentrating

- Dizziness

- Muscle pain and aching

- Sore throat and swollen lymph nodes in the neck

- Headaches

- Light sensitivity and blurred vision

- Mood swings and irritability

- Numbness or burning in the hands and feet

There is no medication that treats chronic fatigue syndrome directly. What can be treated are its components: joint pain, disrupted sleep, headaches and depleted energy. Left unmanaged over long periods, the condition frequently produces secondary depression, insomnia and strain on work and relationships.

How Cannabinoids Support Sleep

Research in this area is expanding, and while more is needed, the existing evidence points to cannabinoid interaction with serotonin signalling. Low serotonin is associated with depression, anxiety and disordered sleep alike, which helps explain why patients often report improvement across all three.

The practical advantage over conventional sleep medication is tolerability. Prescription sedatives commonly bring constipation, dizziness, headaches, heartburn, abdominal pain, nightmares and daytime weakness. For patients who have cycled through several without success, a treatment with a gentler side-effect profile is worth exploring.

Cannabinoid therapy also tends to address the reasons behind the insomnia rather than only the insomnia itself. Patients report muscle relaxation, fewer recurring nightmares, reduced stress and anxiety, and relief from arthritis or chronic pain that had been keeping them awake. Daytime alertness usually improves as a consequence, and with it the ability to keep up with work and stop cancelling on friends and family. In chronic fatigue specifically, patients also report improved appetite, less nausea and more usable energy.

Will It Make Me High?

Not unless that is clinically intended, and for sleep it usually is not. CBD preparations derived from hemp are non-intoxicating and entirely therapeutic in their action. After your consultation, our practitioners will set your dose and help you choose a delivery method, whether that is an oil, an edible, a capsule or a topical.

Sleep Habits That Make Treatment Work Better

Cannabinoid therapy performs best alongside good sleep hygiene. Our clinicians routinely recommend:

- Keeping a fixed wake time, even after a bad night and even at weekends

- Winding down deliberately before bed with meditation, deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation

- Exercising regularly, finishing several hours before bedtime

- Avoiding daytime naps however tempting, since they undermine the overnight schedule

- Stopping caffeine and alcohol six to seven hours before bed, both of which also cause night waking to urinate

- Avoiding large meals late in the evening to reduce heartburn and indigestion

Combining these habits with a properly dosed cannabinoid plan gives you the best chance of waking rested rather than sore and depleted.

Your Treatment Plan at Cura Vida

We assess what type of sleep disorder you have before we treat it, because sleep-onset problems and sleep-maintenance problems call for different formulations and timing. Your plan is reviewed and adjusted as your sleep improves. Medical cannabis treatment should always be supervised by a qualified physician.