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Sleep is consistently ranked as one of the most common reasons for trying CBD, with US-based surveys from 2018 and 2020 both putting sleep issues as one of the top five reasons for using it. But if you’ve shopped around for sleep-promoting hemp, you’ll have undoubtedly found an abundance of cannabinol (CBN) gummies, oils and capsules.
While there is some uncertainty, CBN does appear to be useful for getting to sleep and staying asleep, especially when combined with other cannabinoids. But if you’re looking for CBN in a convenient, capsule or softgel format, what are the best options out there?
What makes a CBN capsule good for sleep?
Broad or full spectrum
The effect of CBN alone isn’t especially well-established, but it does seem to work in combination with a sizable CBD dose and other cannabinoids. This makes broad spectrum or full spectrum capsules the best choice for tackling sleep issues, depending on whether you want THC or not.
THC helps, but legal issues persist
THC does seem effective for sleep promotion, but with a hemp THC ban still hovering over the industry, we’ve prioritized THC-free options here where possible.
Melatonin only in moderation
A small (< 3 mg) dose of melatonin can help nudge your body into a sleepy state, but higher doses can be counterproductive, and it’s better not to take melatonin every night. Because of this, we avoided capsules with high-dose melatonin.
Starting with CBN capsules from 30 brands, only four of them scored high enough on our expert-backed criteria to earn our recommendation. These are the best CBN capsules we found.
Joy Organics THC-Free CBD Softgels with CBN
- CBD type: Broad spectrum
- Potency: 25 mg or 50 mg CBD, 3 mg or 20 mg CBN per softgel
- CBD:THC ratio: THC-free
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $64.95 – $79.95 for 30 softgels ($0.133 to $0.722 per mg CBN)
- Coupon: “WELCOME20” for 20% off
Joy Organics is a reputable industry veteran, offering hemp products made with USDA Certified Organic hemp made in an FDA-registered, GMP-certified manufacturing facility. Their THC-free softgels with CBN combine a choice of two strengths, offering either 25 mg CBD to 3 mg CBN or 50 mg CBD to 20 mg CBN, both with just 3 mg of melatonin per softgel.
They’re also THC-free, which is confirmed by the most recent lab report. Aside from the melatonin, the other non-cannabinoid active ingredient is chamomile, which is a well-known sleep-promoter. While we’d have preferred a cannabinoid-only blend, it does get the job done.
The price per mg of CBN is also especially fantastic if you go for the higher dose.
- USDA Certified Organic hemp
- Genuine broad spectrum: CBD, CBN, CBDV and CBC
- Good CBN dose – either 3 or 20 mg per softgel
- Lab-confirmed THC-free
- Excellent price per mg for the higher-strength option
- FDA-registered and GMP-certified manufacturing
- Moderate 3 mg melatonin dose
- Adds chamomile – not bad but probably not needed
- Quite a jump in CBN content between low and high strength
Medterra Good Night Capsules
- CBD type: Multi-cannabinoid isolate
- Potency: 50 mg CBD, 1.5 mg CBN per serving
- CBD:THC ratio: THC-free
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $64.99 for 60 capsules ($1.44 per mg CBN)
- Coupon: “FEELGOOD40” for 40% off
Medterra’s Good Night Capsules were almost the best example of what we’re looking for in this list, with just a couple of caveats. They’re completely THC-free – confirmed by lab testing – and they offer a 50 mg dose of CBD in addition to 1.5 mg of CBN. Each serving contains 3 mg of melatonin, striking the perfect balance in terms of dose.
They don’t have the biggest CBN dose, but the CBD can also do some of the heavy lifting. The other big downside is that they do contain a lot of other sleep-promoting ingredients, including kava, magnesium, ashwagandha and zinc, making it difficult to tell what works. However, their manufacturing quality is second-to-none, and every batch is lab-tested.
- Hemp Authority Certified brand – exceptional manufacturing quality
- Contains a moderate 3 mg melatonin dose
- 50 mg of CBD per serving
- Lab-confirmed THC free
- Seed to sale brand
- An effective formula for sleep promotion
- Low CBN dose – 1.5 mg per serving
- Lots of other active ingredients
- Quite expensive per mg CBN
- Multi-cannabinoid isolate: Not true broad spectrum
Neurogan CBN Capsules for Sleep
- CBD type: Full spectrum
- Potency: 45 mg CBD, 25 mg CBN
- CBD:THC ratio: 45:1
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $85 for 60 softgels ($0.057 per mg CBN)
- Coupon: “CBDCBNCBG” for 35% off
Neurogan’s CBN Capsules for Sleep combine an excellent dose of CBN with a small amount of THC and plenty of CBD to back it up. The cannabinoids come from organically-grown hemp, sourced from a single location and a single strain. They’re one of the best options out there when it comes to the quality of the crop.
The capsules also offer a solid selection of cannabinoids: CBD, CBN, CBC, CBT, THC and CBG. This offers the full benefits of the entourage effect, although they were unfortunately not tested for terpenes. They also don’t depend on melatonin or unregulated supplements for their effects.
All of this is topped off with a brilliant price per mg of CBN.
- USDA Certified Organic Hemp
- True full spectrum: CBD, CBN, CBC, CBT, THC, CBG and CBDV
- FDA-registered and GMP-certified manufacturing
- Excellent blend to help you sleep
- Best price per mg CBN
- Great CBN dose – 25 mg per capsule
- No melatonin or supplements
- Contains THC
Lazarus Naturals Sleep Capsules
- CBD type: Full spectrum
- Potency: 30 mg CBD, 20 mg CBN and 1 mg THC per serving
- CBD:THC ratio: 30:1
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $32 for 40 capsules ($0.08 per mg CBN)
- Coupon: “FEELGOOD25” for 25% off
Lazarus Naturals’ Sleep Capsules hit on a lot of the key points we were looking for in this list, and are one of two recommended capsules that include THC. While this may mean they need to change formula in the future, for now they have a fantastic cannabinoid selection when it comes to promoting sleep.
The hemp used in these capsules is also top-quality. It’s USDA Certified Organic, and sourced from a single strain grown in a single location, with Lazarus Naturals having control over every stage in the process from seed to sale. Each dose is two capsules, but the price per mg of CBN is fantastic.
However, it does contain unregulated supplements ashwagandha and passion flower extract.
- USDA Certified Organic hemp
- True full spectrum: CBD, CBN, THC and CBG
- Seed to sale brand
- FDA-registered, GMP-certified manufacturing
- Great CBN dose – 20 mg per serving
- Fantastic price per mg CBN
- Melatonin-free
- Contains unregulated supplements
- Only 20 doses per bottle in smaller container
- Contains THC
Other CBN Capsules We Considered
We identified 30 different brands offering CBN capsules from our online searches. However, only four were good enough to receive our full recommendation. We discounted most of these in the early stages. The discounted capsules couldn’t meet our basic requirements for any product we recommend. In short, any product we recommend has a verifiable lab report, including safety testing, from within the past year.
- 9 capsules had old lab reports: For these CBN capsules, there was a lab report, but it was dated over a year before we performed the research. Either these brands have made new batches and not tested them, or the batch has been sitting in storage for long enough to justify re-testing them.
- 9 capsules were not safety tested: These capsules generally did have a recent lab report, but it didn’t include “full panel” safety testing. This covers heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, microbial contamination and mycotoxins. Without these tests, we can’t be sure the capsules are safe to use.
- 5 capsules weren’t backed by a lab report at all: Most of these products apparently had no lab report available at all. One of them likely did have a lab report available, but it was only accessible with a batch number. This is not possible before purchase, so this is not useful to consumers.
After this, 8 different CBN capsules were scored on our full Cannabinoid Product Quality Evaluation Framework. These all scored over 70% but fell short of the 80% required for a recommendation. Capsules from cbdMD, River Botanicals, Extract Labs and Hometown Hero fell into this group. These are all good options if you’re looking for more options.
See the full evaluation spreadsheet here.
Methodology
- Expert insights: We used insights from experts interviewed for our CBD Oils for Sleep list to derive the key criteria for this list. In particular, these were useful for choosing beneficial cannabinoids and setting a limit for melatonin content.
- Market research and analysis: We conducted an automated online search for “CBN Capsules” (with some negative terms to exclude third-party lists) taking the first 160 results and any relevant internal links. These URLs and the page text were saved in a spreadsheet. We gave the spreadsheet to an LLM, with the instruction to pick up to two products per brand that met our expert-guided criteria. The output was manually reviewed by Oracle staff, who then picked the final entrants from each brand.
- Qualifying and scoring: All products went through the process described above. Then, all eight qualifying products were scored on our full Cannabinoid Product Quality Evaluation Framework. Any products scoring over 80% were eligible for this list.
- Final ranking: We based the final ranking largely on products’ scores on our criteria. However, some small adjustments were made to prioritize higher-CBN and THC-free capsules.
Learn more about our ranking methodology.