Foods and Supplements That Boost CBD’s Effectiveness for Sleep

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Key Takeaways:

• Eating a meal rich in healthy fats (like avocado, eggs, salmon or nuts) will help your body absorb more CBD, counteracting a major downside of CBD oils. If you aren’t taking other medications, a glass of grapefruit juice can also boost CBD’s bioavailability. 
• Magnesium appears to be effective for sleep issues, and it can be taken as a supplement or by eating roasted pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, almonds, spinach, peanuts and soy products.
• Ashwagandha is a herbal treatment that helps with both stress and insomnia, pairing very well with CBD.

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With around 30% of Americans experiencing insomnia symptoms at least occasionally, many people are interested in how CBD might be able to help.

The benefits of CBD for insomnia are admittedly a little unclear, unless you have insomnia related to anxiety or use full-spectrum products that also contain CBD, so it’s important to try to maximize the effects of your dose. But how do you do that?

We looked into the foods and supplements you can take to make sure you get the most out of your CBD, and in combination with sleep hygiene and other tips, make it more likely that you’ll get the most out of your dose.

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Foods with Healthy Fats Help You Absorb More CBD (and THC)

We spoke to Dr. Bonni Goldstein, CEO and co-founder of Goldstein Wellness and author of Cannabis is Medicine, who explained to us that:

Only 6 – 24% of a CBD dose taken sublingually or ingested actually makes it to the bloodstream. Additionally, absorption of CBD has been described as ‘erratic,’ so one can have different results from day to day.

This is a central issue when you’re taking CBD for any purpose – if most of the dose is lost, you’ll need to take more than you might think to see a benefit.

There are a few things you can do to help with this (including taking CBD sublingually – i.e. letting it be absorbed under the tongue), but one of the most promising is to consume it after a meal high in healthy fats.

Research shows that taking CBD after a high fat meal increases both the maximum concentration of CBD in your blood by 14 times and quadruples the total amount that makes it to your blood after a dose, compared to being on an empty stomach.

This is also true for THC, although the difference between fasted and fed states is a little lower.  

This suggests that one of the best things you can do to get the most out of your full spectrum CBD is to consume it after a meal containing healthy fats, and to let any tinctures absorb under your tongue.

Dr. Goldstein also noted that, based on her clinical experience, “Higher, more sedating doses [of CBD] can be effective for sleep, but these higher doses can be expensive and may be difficult to sustain over time if cost is an issue.”

However, part of the reason higher doses are needed is the low absorption of CBD.

This means that eating a high-fat meal beforehand – and thus increasing the amount of usable CBD – likely makes it easier to reach the high CBD doses needed for it to be effective for insomnia.

Sources of healthy fats include avocado, eggs, fatty fish such as salmon or herring, nuts and full fat yogurt. Incorporating these into your evening meals wherever possible will give your CBD the best chance of helping you with sleep.

We also spoke to Eloise Theisen, AGPCNP-BC, nurse practitioner, former president of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and CEO of Radicle Health. She pointed out that evidence on the impact of fats is mixed and that “There is still a lot to explore in this area,” adding: 

“There can be a lot of variability among the consumers’ experience with dosing and efficacy. It can be helpful to keep a journal when starting a new CBD product. Writing down the time of administration, the onset, the duration, the effectiveness, and possible side effects can help a person find the right dose and the right product sooner.”

Magnesium

There are many supplements that claim to help with sleep, but magnesium is one of the most evidentially-backed options out there.

Observational studies reveal an association between magnesium and sleep quality, and while the data from randomized clinical trials is more mixed, it seems magnesium does help overall.

One example study separated almost 4,000 participants into quartiles based on their magnesium intake, and then compared the quality of their sleep.

The results suggested that magnesium intake was linked to self-rated sleep quality (just below the threshold of statistical significance in the fully adjusted model) and showed that those who consumed the most magnesium were significantly less likely to sleep under 7 hours per night.

Magnesium is also relatively easy to incorporate into your daily routine, whether through supplementation or by eating foods rich in magnesium, such as roasted pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, almonds, spinach, peanuts, cashews, soy products or whole grain cereals like shredded wheat.

One study looked at a combination of CBD, CBG, beta caryophyllene, branched chain amino acids and magnesium citrate in patients with delayed onset muscle soreness.

While they didn’t find any impacts on sleep in this group, the combination was judged to have a good safety profile, and the treatment did help with the muscle soreness.

CYP3A4 Inhibitors – Grapefruit, Parsnips, Carrots and More

Sherri Mack, BSN-RN, Chief Nursing Officer at Holistic Caring & the Green Nurse and Bloom Hemp CBD, explained to us that, “CBD is metabolized primarily through the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, which is responsible for metabolizing many drugs and supplements.”

This raises an interesting possibility. While Sherri’s comment discussed possible interactions with other drugs because of this, it is also a potential route to boosting the effects of CBD.

In a paper discussing the issue with the low bioavailability of CBD, authors Emilio Perucca and Meir Bialer discuss how to make doses of CBD more effective. The high-fat meal approach, discussed above, is a crucial point this paper makes. However, they also discuss CYP3A4 inhibition.

As Sherri Mack pointed out, this enzyme system is responsible for metabolizing many supplements and medications, and it’s also why many drugs (such as statins) have the “grapefruit warning.”

While this makes it a little dangerous to experiment with CYP3A4 inhibitors if you’re taking other medication – and underscores the importance of discussing medication changes with your healthcare provider – if you’re not taking anything else, it can potentially boost the effect of CBD.

Perucca and Bialer point to another paper where a CBD and THC spray was administered alongside 400 mg of a CYP3A4 inhibitor, which doubled the systemic exposure to CBD (with similar results for THC).

So how do we make use of this? Well, there are many foods which inhibit CYP3A4.

The most well-known is grapefruit, but parsnips, carrots, sweet orange and other, often less practical options like black pepper also have the same effect.

Trying some grapefruit juice, parsnips or carrots alongside your CBD could boost its bioavailability and make it more effective for sleep.

However, it is crucial to emphasize here that you should discuss with a healthcare professional and likely avoid this approach if you’re taking other medications.

Additionally, to get CYP3A4 inhibitor quantities similar to those in the study, grapefruit and parsnips are the best options, because quantities are fairly low in other foods.

Generally speaking, one glass (200 ml) of grapefruit juice is enough to create the effect, while for parsnips there is less clarity on quantity needed, but half a cup may be enough.  

Ashwagandha and Other Herbal Treatments

There are many herbal treatments that can help with sleep, including more obvious options like chamomile and valerian, as well as less well-known options like ashwagandha.

This is a plant grown in India, Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe, and generally referred to by the Indian name (which, a little comically, means “horse smell”).

Evidence is relatively limited, but broadly suggests that ashwagandha is helpful for sleep and other issues such as stress.

One systematic review of the evidence found five randomized controlled trials of ashwagandha for sleep, and concluded that it had a “small but significant” effect on overall sleep.

It was particularly helpful when the individual was diagnosed with insomnia, when they took 600 mg or more per day and when they were treated for eight weeks or more.

Although there is no specific evidence on the combination of ashwagandha and CBD, both compounds are useful for reducing stress, which suggests that they would work well synergistically.

It’s worth noting, though, that ashwagandha is not recommended during pregnancy or while breastfeeding, and it may have interactions with medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, seizures, thyroid hormone issues, sedatives and immunosuppressants.

If you’re concerned, it’s best to check with your healthcare provider before taking it.

The Importance of Tailored Health Advice When Combining Treatments

The list of possible interactions with ashwagandha and the potential issues with CPY3A4 inhibition underline the importance of making sure the combination you’re considering is safe for you.

Ideally, you should check with your healthcare provider beforehand, especially if you have a serious condition or are taking other medications.

Eloise Theisen commented that negative interactions between herbal treatments and CBD are “possible,” adding that:

“In general, we do not have enough research to help us identify which herbal treatments may have an interaction with CBD. It is always best to work with a knowledgeable clinician to review supplements and medications to assess if there is risk. At this time, there are no herbal supplements that are contraindicated with CBD.”

So the good news is that we haven’t identified any risky combinations between herbal treatments and CBD, but the bad news is that there’s a big asterisk next to this because scientists haven’t investigated the issue enough yet.

If you’re concerned, it’s best to consult with your clinician or a medical cannabis coach. 

Conclusion: CBD Alone Might Not Help, But You Can Make it Work

Just like CBD has limited effects on sleep without the addition of THC, combining full-spectrum CBD with high fat foods, magnesium supplements and herbal treatments like ashwagandha can make a big difference to the results you get.

If you’re struggling to sleep and your usual CBD dose isn’t helping, making use of supplements and foods that boost its effectiveness could be just what you need.