At the start of the New Year, many people make a vow to quit drinking after yet another holiday has been spoiled by a series of awful hangovers. And if you´re anything like most people, this vow won’t last very long. We´re only human after all. But all hope isn’t lost, there are ways to soften the blow of a hangover.
And we´re not talking about the usual hangover remedies, such as a greasy breakfast to make you feel even sicker, or having yet another drink to start the day. No, we´re talking about a new way of treating hangovers that has been getting lots of attention lately: CBD oil for hangovers.
First of all, let’s clear up what causes a hangover. Everyone knows alcohol will make you feel good, and then pretty bad soon after. That’s because alcohol is a poison. Yes, this may sound dramatic but it’s true. In fact, alcohol is more harmful to your health than marijuana. The only reason why you´re led to believe otherwise is simply because of politics.
You’ve surely heard how sticking to one type of drink throughout the night won’t give you as bad of a hangover as mixing drinks will. This is because when drinking, your body tries to adapt to the different types of toxins, a.k.a. types of alcohol, and get rid of them as fast as possible. Alcohol poisoning is the result of your body not being able to keep up and too many toxins getting in your system. After all, if consuming something gives you the urge to be sick, then it´s most likely because it isn’t good for you. But don´t worry,CBD has one main function, and that’s to help our body maintain homeostasis and adapt more easily to any changes in our system, such as being hungover. The CBD alcohol treatment of combining CBD oil and alcohol may just do the trick in relieving your hangover.
And here’s how CBD does this:
Fatigue
You wake up feeling groggy, after a more or less sleepless night, and can´t seem to feel well-rested no matter how much you sleep. Sounds familiar? Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of a hangover, and one of the most troublesome. Not getting enough sleep is also the source of many more unpleasant hangover symptoms, such as irritability, trouble concentrating, headaches, and more. Alcohol interferes with your sleep. You´ll be in a light sleep all night and probably wake up about a million times throughout the night, feeling more tired in the morning than when you went to bed.
What causes it?
Alcohol reduces the amount of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep you get, which is the sleep phase that helps our brain process everything from the day and restores our energy for the next. Missing out on REM sleep will leave you feeling drowsy, confused, and low the next day.
One of the main reasons why your sleep is disturbed after drinking is because a few hours after consuming alcohol, your body releases epinephrine, a stress hormone responsible for increasing your heart rate, also known as adrenaline, which will cause you to be more alert in your sleep and wake at the slightest of sounds. A study has shown that 10% of insomnia cases are caused by regular drinking. Alcohol can also worsen breathing-related sleeping problems since it relaxes your throat muscles and can cause sleep apnea.
Drinking also causes a weak bladder, and you´ve probably experienced waking up a dozen times in the night, stumbling out of bed like a toddler to rush to the bathroom. It definitely makes it harder to sleep through the night.
How CBD can help
CBD is known to help with various sleeping problems. Apart from reducing any stressors that may get in the way of a good night’s rest, CBD also directly influences the amount of adenosine in our body. Adenosine is an organic compound in our body responsible for making us feel either sleepy or awake. More adenosine will make you feel tired, less will make you feel awake. While CBD doesn’t cause your adenosine receptors to produce more or less of it, it does help regulate the system to ensure that your body is producing sufficient adenosine when you’re trying to sleep. Alcohol tends to inhibit many of our body’s natural sleeping aids, and CBD can help bring them back.
Nausea
Drinking can also make you run to the bathroom at night for another reason. You feel sick. But don´t worry, this is completely normal, and while it may be unpleasant, it’s just your body’s natural response to getting toxins out of your system. The only problem is that after the toxins are out, you´ll likely still feel the repeated urge to be sick and the next day.
What causes it?
Alcohol activates a region in our brains that’s responsible for nausea and vomiting, which is why it was also coined the vomiting center. When activated, it causes the muscles in our stomach lining to contract and reject whatever is in our stomach, to prevent any more toxins from being absorbed into our bloodstream. While this makes a lot of sense and we should be grateful that our body is able to take such good care of itself, it can be quite agonizing when it doesn’t seem to stop for a whole day.
You may also feel nauseous the next day because your stomach will produce more acid than usual, and on an empty stomach, it can feel sickening. Too much stomach acid will delay your digestion and cause more nausea and vomiting.
How CBD can help
Unfortunately, nausea is one of the biggest challenges of a hangover. Food and water, the very things that will bring relief, are rejected by your body. Our vomiting center is partially regulated by our endocannabinoid system, and in essence, blocking our endocannabinoid system, such as with alcohol, will make us feel nauseous, while activating it, such as with CBD, will reduce nausea.
Animal studies also show that CBD helps reduce nausea by interacting with our serotonin receptors, which can help block the urge to be sick.
Dizziness
The first steps out of bed in the morning after a night of drinking can feel like you’re walking on rollerblades, without ever having had lessons. And you may run into the occasional counter or chair throughout the day, feeling somewhat confused but mostly irritated by your clumsiness.
This can be a result of many things- you could be distracted by your pounding headache, or just having a hard time focusing in general. And you´re not crazy. These are all very real symptoms of a hangover. Your cognitive functions aren’t at their best after drinking and doing any tasks, even the simplest, will seem like a challenge.
What causes it?
Alcohol. But to be more precise, dizziness is a result of the dehydration that comes from alcohol. When your body is dehydrated, your blood pressure will drop and only a fraction of your normal blood flow reaches your brain, causing what people typically describe as brain fog. Dehydration will make it more difficult to focus on tasks, make decisions, or even react accordingly.
You´ll feel pretty similar to when drunk, just without the fun that comes with it. You may be less alert, have a hard time remembering things, and find it difficult to get on with daily activities. Your cognitive functions tend to stay impaired for another 24-48 hours after drinking, even when you feel like your hangover has passed.
How CBD can help
Since CBD helps with nausea, it will make it easier for you to rehydrate your body by drinking enough water the next day. As mentioned earlier, CBD supports your body in maintaining homeostasis. Since dizziness is a result of many different factors, CBD will help your body get back into shape and fight off a hangover faster. If you can manage to get it down, try taking a few drops of our CBD Oil throughout the day and you´ll notice the headache and brain fog clearing up. You can even set up a CBD oil hangover kit for when you’re in need!
The Bottom Line
The best way to avoid a hangover is by not drinking. But many people enjoy alcohol. So a great way to reduce the symptoms of a hangover the next morning is by taking CBD or even having CBD instead of alcohol during the night. While CBD will help you feel better when hungover the next day, you can also combine CBD and alcohol tol reduce how bad your hangover will be the next day.
The three main characteristics of a hangover are fatigue, nausea, and dizziness. CBD can help combat each of them. While CBD usually should not have any directly noticeable effects, except for making you feel overall better and relieving any problems, it’s very powerful in treating hangovers. Since CBD helps your body stay in balance, it can be particularly helpful when your body is completely out of balance after a night of drinking.
Just be sure that the CBD you take is of good quality, such as our Mission Farms CBD, which will bring you relief, without any side-effects or risk of addiction. All Mission Farms CBD products have been triple-tested and are created to help with various kinds of problems. If you´re not sure what works best for you, why not try one of our CBD bundles to create your own CBD hangover relief kit?
