Stress Awareness Month: Can CBD Help Relieve Stress?

unhappy woman suffering from a stress headache at home

There’s no better time to reflect on how you are feeling and how you could bring a little calm into your life than during Stress Awareness Month.

Stress-relief is something more and more of us are needing, with the current chaos spurred on by the Coronavirus causing unprecedented stress across society.

Over the past year, CBD has been more commonly used in stress management. How can this cannabinoid really help?

What is Stress Awareness Month all about?

Since 1992, April has been nominated Stress Awareness Month — a time to increase public awareness about both the causes of and cures for our modern day stress epidemic.

According to the Mental Health Foundation, 74% of UK adults have felt stressed at some point over the last year. Almost one third of Brits have experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings due to stress.

In the US, a Quartz survey published earlier this year found that 50% of respondents first tried CBD in the hope that it would ease anxiety and stress.

One professional who has investigated this topic for Harvard Health Publishing is Peter Grinspoon, MD, who wrote:

“CBD may prove to be an option for managing anxiety”

Stress and anxiety often go hand-in-hand, so any evidence that it can reduce anxiety is likely to be good news for your stress levels too.

Could CBD help with sleep?

We all have stressful periods where it can be hard to relax and sleep at night. Sleep and mood are closely connected. A lack of sleep can cause irritability and stress, whereas healthy sleep enhances your overall well-being.

Dr Grinspoon wrote:

“CBD is commonly used to address anxiety, and for patients who suffer through the misery of insomnia, studies suggest that CBD may help with both falling asleep and staying asleep”

Hormonal imbalances can also lead to us experiencing stress. Our hormones can naturally fluctuate, which can have a negative impact on how we feel. Could CBD really help with this?

Brazilian research suggests that it might. The authors of a study there wrote:

“[The] decrease in cortisol levels was significantly attenuated after CBD.
“CBD was also found to have a sedative effect as determined by the self-evaluation scales. The present results suggest that CBD interferes with cortisol secretion.”

The evidence suggests that CBD may help reduce many symptoms of stress and improve your overall well-being, so maybe now is the time to stop stressing about it and simply give it a go!