Raise your hand, like do it now, if you regularly sleep soundly 8 hours a night. Guessing it’s still by your side. Don’t worry. There’s one thing that might make you feel better: You are totally not alone. A very small portion of the American population sleeps well enough — or enough at all — to function the way a human body is meant to. That’s messed up.
And what’s even more frustrating is that when you have no routine sleep cycle, your body pays in more ways than pure exhaustion the next day. The biggest is in appetite. When you don’t get enough sleep or have wonky rest you’ll be more hungry — and for the wrong things — the next day.
Your norm is to “think” you’re hungry. That’s because sleep deprivation over-stimulates certain hormones that actually trick your brain. Here’s how. There are two hormones related to appetite: ghrelin and leptin. The first signals your brain that it’s time to eat. The second says, “Wait, I’m full.” Guess which hormone increases when you don’t sleep enough? Yep, ghrelin, which kind of reminds us of gremlin. And that’s how you feel when you’re hungry all the time, right?
So who wants their brain saying it’s time to eat all day? Who wants to be controlled by the gremlin? Not me. It’s exhausting — and fattening. See when we’re fatigued and low in energy, our bodies automatically turn to food to provide a quick source of energy. This often leads to making poor dietary choices, which is not ideal when you’re trying to lose body fat or even find enough fuel to sustain throughout the day.
The double whammy is that when we’re tired and not fueled properly, we’re also typically too low energy to even think about exercising, which can be the ultimate mood booster, not to mention health regulators. Are you getting the vicious cycle? We’re all in it some way or another.
Hemp Extract: Get back to sleep homeostasis
While it’s still your responsibility to carve out the right window of time for a good night’s sleep, you can now give hemp extract the responsibility of helping you improve the quality of your sleep.
How we fall asleep, stay asleep, wake up and remain awake is part of an internal biological process regulated by our circadian rhythms and the endocannabinoid system. Driven by a variety of neurochemicals and molecular pathways, the sleep-wake cycle is highly complex.
Try to follow this: The two known endocannabinoids (known as anandamide and 2AG) activate CB1 cannabinoid receptors that are concentrated in the central nervous system, including parts of the brain associated with regulating sleep. CB1 receptors control the neurotransmitter release that dials back excessive neuronal activity associated with anxiety, pain, and inflammation. And guess what? These are key factors in modulating sleep homeostasis, or the stability of your nightly Zs.
Carefully formulated water-soluble hemp extract can actually bind with the body’s CB1 and CB2 receptors. This assists your body’s endocannabinoid system in maintaining vital health functions and restoring critical homeostasis. You have to start somewhere. Supplementing with hemp extract to offset deficiencies can essentially realign the endocannabinoid system to a fully functioning state. And we now know what that helps with: sleep!
The point is we could all use better sleep so that tomorrow looks a little brighter. When it does, we eat better and have more energy to exercise and take care of our bodies the way we know we should. THC-free hemp extract is just a friend in the cause. The question is: Why wouldn’t you offload some of the responsibility to help you sleep in peace?
