How Many CBD Gummies Should I Take To Relax? It’s Hard To Say

Any layman who tells you exactly how many CBD gummies to take, without knowing anything about you or what you’re trying to achieve, shouldn’t be trusted.

That’s because determining a CBD dose is difficult, for a number of reasons.

• CBD hasn’t been approved as a general prescription treatment, so there are no medically-accepted or recommended dosages to guide users.
• The amount of CBD that appeared to provide benefits in preliminary research varies widely, depending on the condition the users being treated were suffering from.
• Recommendations from “experts” and CBD producers vary widely, too. Many suggest a starting dose of 5mg but others recommend significantly higher doses.
• The effectiveness of CBD can depend on a user’s weight, metabolism, whether they’re suffering from serious medical issues or on other medications, and the type of CBD they’re taking and how they take it.

The smartest approach is to talk to your doctor or another healthcare professional who can assess your medical condition and needs, tell you whether CBD (short for cannabidiol) is the right choice for you, and suggest a dosage.

If you don’t want to go that route and are intent on just grabbing some CBD gummies because you need to relax, here’s what we can tell you.

The common suggestion to start with a dose of 5mg is a good one, since you can always increase the dosage if you find after a couple of weeks that you’re not receiving the benefits you expect. “Start low and increase slow” is smart advice for any substance.

The need to relax can be caused by several issues including stress or anxiety, inability to fall asleep, or more serious mental health issues. Very different doses appeared to be effective in preliminary studies; 25mg seemed effective for sleep issues, stress, and generalized anxiety; more was needed for serious psychiatric issues, and as much as 300-600mg for severe anxiety.

The good news is that research has shown that as much as 1,500 milligrams per day are well-tolerated by humans, so even high doses shouldn’t cause big problems.

Here’s a look at the details.

Hemp and Cannabis, CBD and THC

Cannabidiol is just one of the 100+ plant compounds known as cannabinoids found in hemp and cannabis, but it’s one of the two most important. The other is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the compound in cannabis plants (and the marijuana harvested from them) that makes users high.

Cannabis and hemp contain very different levels of THC and CBD. The former, of course, is loaded with psychoactive THC, but it has very low cannabidiol levels. It’s the opposite story for hemp, which contains very small amounts of THC but bountiful amounts of CBD. That’s why the cannabidiol used to produce CBD gummies and other products is sourced from hemp.

Both cannabinoids may provide a long list of potential medical benefits, but since CBD is non-intoxicating, it’s become enormously popular with consumers since its legalisation in the late 2010s. Preliminary studies have shown that cannabidiol appears to be effective for treating, among other conditions, stress, anxiety, depression, and more serious mental health disorders.

CBD and the Body

Once consumed and processed in the body, CBD (as well as THC) interacts with a network of receptors known as the endocannabinoid system (ECS). Cannabinoids have almost identical chemical structures to endocannabinoids, neurotransmitters produced internally that serve as messengers shuttling between ECS receptors, organs, and other systems in the body.

The ECS governs a huge number of critical bodily functions, from thought and sleep to immunity and inflammation. The similarity of CBD and endocannabinoids allows cannabidiol to interact with the receptors to send its own control messages or change the ones being sent; that’s how CBD provides its effects.

Cannabidiol doesn’t immediately reach ECS receptors after it’s consumed, though. It must be metabolised in the liver, where it’s converted to active substances that deliver the cannabinoid’s effects and inactive ones that are excreted. Even before that, though, CBD may have to go through the digestive process.

When CBD is dissolved under the tongue or vaped, the cannabidiol is quickly absorbed by the sublingual (“under the tongue”) or lung tissues, enters the bloodstream, and moves right to the liver. Any other way of consuming CBD, including chewing and swallowing gummies, sends the cannabidiol-infused product to the stomach to be digested.

It can take between 30 minutes and two hours for digestion to be completed and the CBD to be absorbed by tissues in the small intestine, and a lot of cannabidiol is lost during the process. That means a huge delay before the CBD takes effect — and perhaps more importantly, it means that CBD products that have to be digested will be much less effective.

In most cases, people using CBD gummies experience those issues.

The Pros and Cons of Using CBD Gummies

Many CBD products have hit the market since their legalisation: CBD oil, CBD capsules, CBD vapes, CBD topical, and CBD edibles and beverages. CBD gummies are the most popular form of edible on the market,

Their popularity is understandable, but most users don’t realize there are also drawbacks to consuming cannabidiol by chewing on gummy candies.

Pros of CBD Gummies

• Familiarity: Almost everyone has chewed gummies, whether it’s just for the candies’ flavours or as an easy way to consume vitamins, other supplements, or THC.
• Convenience: CBD gummies are easy to carry and take anywhere.
• Discretion: It’s simple to pop a gummy in any setting without letting people know that you’re using cannabidiol.
• Premeasured dosages: CBD gummies are sold in packages identified by the dosage of cannabidiol the candies contain. There’s no measuring needed, and no uncertainty about how much CBD you’re theoretically consuming. (More on that shortly.)
• Taste: There’s a huge selection of different (and hopefully delicious) CBD gummy flavours to choose from.

Cons of CBD Gummies

• Delayed effectiveness: As discussed previously, CBD gummies usually must be digested before the cannabidiol can be metabolised and interact with the ECS. On average, that means an extra 30 minutes or so added to the time it takes for them to become effective.
• Loss of cannabidiol during digestion: As also discussed, a good deal of the CBD will be broken down by stomach acids and enzymes during digestion. Studies show that as little as 20% of the cannabidiol will wind up being available to the body, about half the amount that’s available when it’s immediately absorbed by sublingual or lung tissues.
• Temptation to take too many: It’s easy to pop an extra CBD gummy or two since they’re essentially cannabidiol contained in candy. That may lead to consuming dosages much higher than intended.

There’s a relatively easy way to avoid those first two drawbacks. When users take a CBD gummy and hold it under their tongue until it dissolves completely, the cannabidiol is absorbed by sublingual tissues just like CBD oil. Digestion is avoided, and the gummies kick in faster and deliver greater effectiveness.

How Many CBD Gummies Should I Take?

That’s the wrong question to ask. If you’ve spent any time researching or shopping for CBD gummies, you already know that the products are available in a huge range of dosages.

Understanding Numbers on CBD Labels

Before grabbing a bottle of gummies, you need to understand what’s on the label. Most packaging emphasizes the total amount of cannabidiol in the bottle, not the amount in each gummy. You’ll often see bottles labelled 500mg, 1500mg, or 2500mg — but that’s not how much CBD you’ll be taking when you chew on a gummy. It’s the amount in all the gummies, combined.

Most packaging will also identify, perhaps in small print, how much cannabidiol is in each gummy; that’s the number you’re looking for.

You’ll still have a big choice, though. You can find CBD gummies available in doses of 2.5, 5, 10, 25, and 50 milligrams, sometimes even 100mg or more. Before buying a bottle, you need to decide on the dose you want to take.

That’s usually an even bigger problem.

CBD Dosing: Not “One Size Fits All”

For starters, there are no authoritative recommendations to rely on. Since cannabidiol isn’t an approved medical treatment (except for a few rare types of childhood epilepsy), there are no accepted guidelines for CBD dosing.

The next problem is that the recommendations you do hear, whether it’s from manufacturers, individual doctors, or “experts” with CBD experience are all over the map. Most bottles of CBD gummies have “suggested doses” printed on their labels, but they don’t consider any important individual factors.

What are those factors? Cannabidiol’s effectiveness can depend on a user’s weight and BMI, the speed of their metabolisms, any preexisting conditions they have or medications they take, and even their diets. And as you’ll learn shortly, the CBD doses that appear to help people with one condition can be dramatically higher (or lower) than those that help with another.

Finally, as we’ve mentioned, CBD gummies will be much more effective if they’re allowed to dissolve under the tongue instead of being chewed and swallowed. That factor, and all of the others, might argue for larger or smaller doses than the “experts” might otherwise suggest.

The smart move is to talk to your doctor before deciding on a CBD dose. They’ll understand all of the individual physical and health conditions that could determine the “right dose” for your needs — and they can also tell you if CBD might interact with your medication regime. Don’t forget to tell them you’re going to use gummies, which could call for higher-than-usual dosages.

General CBD Dosing Information

With all of that said, readers may still want a general idea of doses that might be appropriate. Bear in mind that this information is based only on preliminary research results and non-authoritative guidelines (except for the first numbers we’ll provide), and isn’t medical advice of any kind.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends maximum daily dosages totalling no more than 10mg, and the Australian government recommends no more than 70mg of CBD per day. Just those two numbers show how inconsistent suggested dosing can be.

Meanwhile, most with experience in the industry suggest starting with doses of 5mg or even 2.5mg taken twice a day, waiting a couple of weeks to see if those amounts help, and then slowly increasing the doses if necessary. As for experienced users, recommendations generally range from 10mg to 30mg daily.

Preliminary evidence shows, however, that might not be enough CBD for some conditions. Here are some of the amounts of cannabidiol that appeared to be effective in research studies.

• Insomnia, sleep problems, stress, and generalized anxiety: 25mg
• Chronic or serious pain: 30-600mg
• Parkinson’s disease: 75-300mg
• Diabetes: 200mg
• Serious mental health conditions like schizophrenia: 200-800mg
• Severe anxiety: 300-600mg

That’s an enormous range, needless to say, and may not be much help for most people who simply want to know how many CBD gummies they should take to relax. However, understanding the type of stress or anxiety they’re dealing with, ideally in conjunction with their doctor, might guide them toward an appropriate ballpark CBD dosage.

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