I usually sleep like a baby, a luxury I credit to regular cannabis use. When I took a break from regular use, I expected an adjustment period, but I’m still not sleeping well. Enter Sweet Dreams CBD sleep aid. Knowing how well I slept on THC, I had to give CBD a shot! A sales rep for Revital U, the makers of Sweet Dreams sleep CBD, sent me a free sample.
To avoid biasing my results, I didn’t read Revital U’s marketing literature before my trying Sweet Dreams CBD sleep supplement. To be safe, however, I read all of the packaging which informed me about the CBD dose, all other ingredients, and instructions for using Sweet Dreams.
I wanted an unbiased result, so I was careful not to do any research before giving Sweet Dreams sleep CBD an honest try. I practiced good sleep hygiene, to ensure that I wasn’t negatively impacting the results; consistent bed and wake times starting a few nights before my trial, no alcohol, and no coffee in the afternoon. I threw in a nightly sleep meditation to give myself every chance to experience the benefits.
I took the two-night free sample of Sweet Dreams sleep CBD extract and, much to my disappointment, nothing improved. I didn’t need to check my Fitbit sleep monitor, but it empirically confirmed I still had terrible sleep. So what gives?
I started with a review of medical research around CBD sleep supplements. A recent article published by the NIH concluded that, “Cannabidiol may hold benefit for anxiety-related disorders,” but did not conclude that CBD is an effective treatment for “poor sleep” unrelated to anxiety. In fact, every scientifically-credible study I found reached the same conclusion: CBD is clinically effective in reducing anxiety and sometimes related sleep issues. Not one CBD sleep study concluded that it is an effective sleep aid when anxiety is not present.
If your sleep issues are related to anxiety, you may have more success than I did with a CBD sleep aid. According to the same NIH study, anxiety scores decreased by 79.2% within the first month in two-thirds of the CBD study participants. Sleep scores improved 66.7% in the first month for half of the participants, but the results were not consistent over the duration of the study. CBD may not help everyone with anxiety sleep well, but it seems to help some people.
If you would like to give it a try, remember that CBD – like all supplements – is unregulated, meaning the manufacturers are not required to prove that their product is safe or effective. There are a lot of companies jumping on the CBD bandwagon without good products or good science. Consumer Reports offers guidelines for purchasing CBD products, which are a starting point for purchasing a safe, effective product. Revital U’s Sweet Dreams generally meets the guidelines. The Revital U website says that the hemp is grown in the US, and my sales rep was able to confirm that it is grown in Oregon, so that’s a good start. They also publish 3rd-party, independent testing results for potency (all cannabinoids) and purity (microbes and solvents.)
Sweet Dreams is a full-spectrum hemp extract with 25mg of CBD per dose, as well as terpenes and small amounts of THC. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to confirm which terpenes are in the hemp extract. Due to the entourage effect, a full-spectrum extract is best, when THC testing is not a concern. Even at trace amounts, where there is not enough THC to experience psychoactive effects, it is possible to test positive for THC, so anyone who undergoes drug screening should opt for a broad-spectrum CBD oil for sleep and relaxation and should not use Sweet Dreams or any other full-spectrum CBD product. Broad-spectrum CBD products contain CBD and terpenes, but no THC, making them safe for drug tests, but generally considered less effective. CBD isolates – with no other cannabinoids or terpenes – are considered least effective.
Revital U combines the full-spectrum hemp extract with an herbal blend that includes chamomile (for relaxation) and passionflower (a mild sedative), with lavender and mint – both of which have the calming terpene linalool in common with cannabis. Sweet Dreams also includes melatonin and other ingredients that may promote a sense of calm in the body.
Sweet Dreams seems thoughtfully formulated to promote sleep by reducing anxiety. Someone with anxiety and poor sleep can test if Sweet Dreams CBD sleep aid works for them personally with a free two-night sample. Definitely try it for yourself before committing to a monthly subscription at $69.99.
That said, I have to be honest about my two reservations.
- Revital U is a multilevel marketing (MLM) company. If you look up Revital U, you will find the same purportedly-unbiased copy/paste review of the company on at least eight websites – one even claims, “I do not promote, nor I am I affiliated with Revital U.” I have a hard time trusting any company deceptively working to convince me they are trustworthy. To their credit, the company does not seem to rely on internal sales to a distribution network that then resells the product, as a true pyramid scheme does. They drop ship to the end customer through their website instead of selling to their marketing network.
- This is the second supplement released by Revital U. Their first claims to be an appetite suppressant and metabolic booster, based on green coffee extract – a claim popularized by charlatan Dr. Oz, with such shady scientific evidence he was called to testify before a Senate panel on health and science.
Bottom line: Revital U is an MLM and, while it is not a pyramid scheme, I found some evidence of deception and dubious science. As they say, be careful who you get in bed with.
