Sleep in Midst of a Pandemic
Tag @tryverima and share how you have been sleeping.
It’s 1:27 AM. The house is silent (finally!) and though you are exhausted, you wonder to yourself if you will ever sleep tonight. You didn’t last night, and hardly at all the night before that, except for perhaps a few groggy hours of muddled sleep around 5:00 AM, a mere hour or two before your littles were up and raring to go for the day. This is becoming a regular pattern for you, especially since the start of the pandemic, so you give up sleeping for now and turn on your light to read and get your mind off the 101 thoughts racing through your head.
Sleep deprivation, insomnia, anxiety, and depression are being recognized in more and more women these days, and society has begun to take note. There have been countless articles recently that have brought to light the imbalance in parenting, and the unfair expectations put upon women these days. Women carry the brunt of the mental load in most households, and that responsibility is absolutely exhausting, especially when combined with managing a career as well. All this has only been magnified as we shelter at home and add homeschooling/full time childcare to the mix. Rachel Garlinghouse shared her struggles during the shelter at home on ScaryMommy. It’s no wonder many women are developing anxiety or depression, and turning to sleep aids to help them get the rest they so desperately need.
In an attempt to get a decent night’s sleep, some women turn to prescription medications. These medications however often come with their own side effects that can leave people feeling groggy, “hungover”, and sometimes even more tired. This continuous cycle of sleep deprivation is all part of the problem, and it is perpetuating this struggle that women are facing. Women who are dealing with sleep issues like anxiety and insomnia need a natural sleep aid that helps them get a decent night’s sleep and which doesn’t come with a whole host of side effects. Hayley MacMillan wrote about her experiences with sleep aids and how CBD is her tactic of choice.
Luckily, there is more and more evidence each day that points to CBD oil as being a safe, natural, effective treatment for sleep disorders. While we await definitive clinical trials studying the specific effects of CBD on sleep, there has been significant anecdotal results from many patients who have noticed a stark increase in their sleep quality after starting to take CBD oil. Some physicians, who are in support of using CBD oil felt that while CBD could in fact be helping their patients to sleep better, they also considered that CBD is also treating other symptoms that were hindering their patients’ sleep, like anxiety or Restless Leg Syndrome.
Oftentimes, the mental load that women carry tends to ramp up into overdrive at night when we’re supposed to be resting. We’re checking that endless to-do list, wondering if we forgot anything important, making a mental note of the kids’ Zoom times, thinking about what to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner, worrying about a work deadline and staying employed. We are desperately trying to sustain the unsustainable for an undefined amount of time. It is often in the evening once the others are asleep and we can finally think, when anxiety creeps up and launches into high gear. By finding something that can treat the anxiety, then the sleep will naturally follow, assuming there are no other underlying conditions preventing a decent night’s sleep.
CBD can also aid in balancing sleep cycles, help your muscles to relax, and even lessen chronic pain that may be contributing to a restless sleep. It is important to find the dosage that works best for you, as people will react to different amounts in completely different ways. The trick is to start low and go slow; start with a small dose of our high-quality broad-spectrum CBD tincture in the early evening. Squeeze the contents of the dropper under your tongue and let the liquid absorb through the membrane for as long as comfortable (preferably a minute or so) before swallowing. See how it makes you feel and how it helps you sleep. If you don’t find it helping enough, try increasing the dose. For some they will feel the effects that day, for others, the CBD needs to build up in their systems before any differences are noted.
We’re all juggling a lot right now and we deserve at the basic level to be functioning on all cylinders which only can come after a solid night’s sleep. Sleep well, Mama, you deserve it.
Learn more at www.tryverima.com
