CBD is a well-known and well-loved tool for improving the health of humans across the globe. It enables us to overcome specific physical and mental ailments that plague the human experience. Such relief has come at great benefit for us, and for many, it is simply impossible to go without. However, it has recently come to our attention that some want to share the boon of CBD with their canine companions to ensure they share the same quality of life CBD has afforded us humans. A noble goal for those of us who understand how bleak life is without our faithful dog friends.
CBD has been used to help put us at ease and reduce pain issues when needed. However, using CBD to help us fall asleep has also been a topic of some debate for many. Therefore, we must ask ourselves if these benefits can be extended to our dogs and allow them to have a more restful sleep than they might without assistance.
Despite what some might believe, even dogs can have a poor night’s sleep for many reasons. So, the idea that CBD can be used to alleviate a dog’s sleep patterns from disturbances is interesting. With this article, we hope to provide some insight into how CBD can be used to help your fur baby to sleep better at night.
What Affects a Dog’s Sleep Cycle?
Dogs, like humans, are subject to multiple variables that can negatively impact the quality of their sleep. Knowing what these adverse effects are is an important starting point to ensure that CBD is the proper tool for sleep quality improvement. A few severe conditions like sleep apnea or narcolepsy require you to seek veterinary aid to keep them healthy and that no supplement can adequately treat. However, general insomnia is just as treatable with non-pharmaceutical compounds for dogs as it is for humans. The same contributing factors to insomnia found in human psychology and physiology are also applicable to dogs.
Insomnia is highly uncommon in dogs as the causes are generally difficult for a dog to contract without some form of stimuli. More often than not, a dog suffering from insomnia will likely have a more severe condition afflicting them that causes insomnia. The primary culprit of insomnia for dogs will be some form of physical discomfort from a disease the dog is suffering from, such as arthritis, which causes chronic pain.
In addition, certain psychological issues can disrupt your dog’s rest that you might not have expected to apply to them. However, even dogs can suffer from anxiety or stress, which makes sleeping a near impossibility when they are too preoccupied with these mental states to relax fully.
Ultimately, it boils down to dogs unable to fully relax will have equally diminished sleep quality. Dogs who are unable to relax are rare since they have very little in the way of worldly concerns. However, as your dog ages, their cognitive function begins to deteriorate, and it becomes easier for them to be unsettled.
For this reason, anxiety and stress become more of an issue if your dog is approaching their senior years. This concept is also applicable to physical ailments like arthritis which become more likely to manifest in your dog. These conditions can also afflict younger dogs predisposed to them or who have had multiple surgeries.
The question eventually becomes, “what can be done?” This is where taking advantage of CBD’s effects starts to come into play.
Can CBD Help Your Dog’s Physical Discomfort?
CBD has seen a surge in popularity among those who suffer from chronic pain resulting from injury or disease. This is because CBD has a direct line of contact with the endocannabinoid system of the human anatomy, which researchers theorize enables the adjustment of the ECS receptors in the human brain and immune system. Responses from these receptors can trigger specific immune responses that can help manage pain responses in the body.
One of the chief methods for this is the anti-inflammatory effect started by introducing CBD to the endocannabinoid system, which can reduce inflammation caused by many diseases and injuries alike. CBD’s effects on pain management have been reviewed, with a study from 2018 discovering its ability to manage pain symptoms resulting from conditions like:
- Cancer
- Neuropathic trauma
- Fibromyalgia
While the studies in question were primarily conducted to determine CBD’s suitability for human use with the tests conducted on rats and mice, the effects are also applicable to canines. Given that several tests were conducted on rodents, which are slightly closer to dogs in nature, the results replicated in dogs are far from a stretch.
We mentioned earlier that arthritis is a physical ailment that can negatively impact your dog’s ability to enjoy a restful sleep. Fortunately, CBD has been tested to determine its range of effects on arthritis-induced pain and inflammation. Specifically, in 2016, a test involving arthritic rats evaluated how CBD impacted their symptoms.
The study involved the application of CBD gel to the rats over four days, with each rat receiving a different dosage. One group received 0.6 mg per day, the next received 3.1 mg, the third was given 6.2 mg, and the last group of rats was administered 62.3 mg a day. The first two groups showed little to no improvement whatsoever. Still, the latter two showed a demonstrable reduction in their pain levels and reduced swelling, proving CBD has the potential to manage the symptoms produced by arthritis. That said, arthritis is not the only pain-inducing ailment that might cause your dog to struggle to stay asleep, but it is the most common.
If your dog is suffering from chronic pain as a result of arthritis, then they will likely find it next to impossible to remain comfortable to fall or stay asleep. In this case, using CBD to help regulate their pain levels could make all the difference between a good night’s sleep for your dog and a night of restless agony. That said, physical pain is not the only concern for your dog’s health. Given that dogs are just as capable of emotional and psychological distress as anxiety, it is important to find tools to combat them.
Can CBD Help With Your Dog’s Emotional Distress?
Emotional issues such as anxiety are complicated to treat in humans and dogs alike. Aside from the actual anxiety, the biggest problem dogs have is that it is more difficult to detect due to the lack of verbal communication. Since dogs cannot speak English or any other language we understand, they cannot tell us when they feel anxious, and we must instead pay close attention to their behavior.
While this might seem like detecting your dog’s anxiety is a nearly impossible task, there are a handful of signs you can look out for to evaluate their current condition.
If your dog demonstrates any of the following behaviors or actions, it might correlate to anxiety:
- Hiding: If your dog regularly hides in a hard-to-reach spot or cowers behind you, it might be a sign of them trying to avoid the source of their anxiety.
- Shivering and Whining: Excessive whining or cowering while placing their weight on their hind legs can be a sign of anxiety.
- Loss of Appetite: One of the most significant signs of anxiety in dogs is a loss of appetite. If an animal refrains from eating in general, it is probably because they are not comfortable lowering their guard to eat.
- Aggression: Dogs suffering from anxiety might instead lash out and bite or destroy your belongings rather than hide.
- Bathroom Accidents: Sometimes, a dog will respond to anxiety by defecating or urinating in your home despite prior bathroom training.
- Pacing: If your dog is pacing around your home and aimlessly going from room to room, they could be suffering from anxiety.
Recognizing the signs of anxiety in your dog is an essential first step, but the biggest concern becomes treating it. So, now we come to how CBD could make all the difference for your dog’s mental state. CBD’s ability to react with our receptors is a significant aspect of what makes it practical for treating anxiety in humans, specifically its effect on triggering the serotonin receptor.
While the anatomies of humans and dogs differ radically, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) performed a study on animals to see if the effects were as prevalent as they are in us. The result of the studies showed that animals who were administered CBD showed remarkable drops in stress and could relax more.
The fact that CBD can help animals relax and overcome their anxiety and stress makes it helpful in allowing your canine compatriot to get proper rest. If your dog is anxious, it will be restless and likely suffer from insomnia. Administering CBD will allow them actually to sleep without feeling antsy. But you might be wondering if CBD has a more direct role in helping your dog fall asleep.
Does CBD Put Your Dog to Sleep?
We have previously discussed CBD in conjunction with melatonin to help stave off insomnia. While one substance can provide your body with an essential chemical that we usually produce to begin falling asleep, CBD does not have a drowsing effect in and of itself. There might be rare reactions based on the one taking it where you start to feel a little tired, but this is not a regular or reliable effect that CBD can provide. While this is the case for humans, it should be just as applicable to dogs. When suffering from insomnia, the primary purpose of CBD consumption is to help you feel at ease to relax long enough to let sleep overtake you.
With that said, the same relaxing effects CBD has for humans will apply to dogs. While it will not directly put them to sleep, it will ensure they are at peace and not suffering from any pain when trying to go to bed for the night. Just be sure that the amount of CBD in the treat or supplement is at a safe level, so your dog does not suffer any ill effects. Your biggest concern will be acquiring a quality CBD treat from a reliable vendor with quality production methods behind them.
X-perience CBD
While CBD is not an all-around cure for insomnia and will not be what puts your dog to sleep, it can help them reach the level of comfort they need. If your dog is suffering from chronic pain or anxiety, it will almost certainly be unable to relax long enough to fall asleep. By administering CBD, you can overcome these issues to enough extent that your furry friend will be able to rest peacefully.
We know that, with age, some dogs have a more challenging time than others, but with the right supplements, you can make their lives a little simpler and restore their quality of life to a degree. Before you begin using anything new in your dog’s diet or system, you might want to consider consulting with a veterinarian if you live in a state sympathetic to CBD use. Just bear in mind that all dogs are different and might have specific allergies or issues with CBD.
If you want to acquire a CBD treat that your dog can take to relax them and reduce their pain, we can help. We at Neuro XPF have made it our goal to create CBD supplements for both humans and dogs to enjoy and undo some of the damage to their systems that reduce the quality of life. Our CBD dog treats are made with the accepted dosage of CBD for a dog and come with certificates of analysis to assure their quality. So, check out our website today so you can x-perience the best CBD in the game!
Do you have any questions about CBD, or how it could potentially help your canine companion? If so, please feel free to drop us a line and ask away! We’d be more than happy to assist you and your furry friend however we possibly can!