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Comment by perihelions | Hacker News Reader

Counter-anecdotally, doesn't work at all for insomnia, at anything short of heroic doses. (Or some there some variable I'm possibly overlooking? I got this prescribed for insomnia a couple months ago and have largely given up—it didn't seem effective).

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I originally started smoking to help with my insomnia, and it was effective for quite some time. However, I also learned that I just generally enjoy being high, and am reasonably functional on it, so I started smoking for general relaxation purposes. Now that I am a frequent smoker, my tolerance has grown, so it is more of a mixed bag when it comes to putting me to sleep. Heroic doses don't help, at least when smoking (even when using high purity concentrates, etc.) (though edibles are more consistent in this regard,) even though I stick to the general "wisdom" of only using indica strains. There's mixed science on how impactful the terpene makeup is, though some are considered psychoactive or at least modulating on the uptake of cannabinoids via the entourage effect, so it's possible that terpene content could impact how useful you find it for sleeping. Or you might just respond to it more similarly to how I do now that I am a regular smoker, and not see significant impact on your ability to sleep.

I don't know what you were prescribed, but for me, smoking and vaping doesn't have the same effect. Edibles, and in particular I take ones that use Indica strains with some CBD, do the magic for me.

And it took me a bit of experimentation to figure out the correct dosage in milligrams for my body. An interesting thing about cannabis is that you don't really risk a ton from over-indulging besides maybe just having a bad time with some uncomfortable mental state (paranoia and dizziness.) I'm a fairly small person and 20mg is what does it for me. But you might try 10mg or 30mg. I know people that take 50mg, or have (perhaps irresponsibly) taken 100mg. It's mostly up to you to figure out your dosage, and in most cases I'd say listening to your doctor for dose is the right call; for this I'd say maybe take it a bit more as a suggestion than a rule, until you find a sweet spot. If you find a sweet spot. Wish you the best!

> Indica strains with some CBD

what does this mean? any cannabis plant with THC will have CBD. the amount of the minor cannabinoids differ depending on the cultivar. recreational weed has been cultivated to spike the THC so it is way out of balance to the other cannabinoids, and in my current understanding seems to drastically reduce its use for medicinal purposes. the popular phrase is "entourage effect" of all of the cannabinoids working together.

Many strains out there are below 0.05% CBD, but you can find much higher if you look for it. In my legal state every cannabis dispensary has at least one 1:1 or 2:1 CBD to THC strain, often several. It's not that hard to find.

Worst case, you can order hemp flower (very high CBD with trace amounts of THC) legally in many places and just combine that with a high THC strain at whatever ratio you desire. You can pretty easily make edibles yourself this way with an online guide, it's basically just following a recipe.

This is actually ended up working pretty well for me! The HN replies I got provoked me to go out and obtain a high-CBD hemp strain (22%), which turned out to be the key variable. I had often before tried combining THC + CBD strains, as you describe—but with more conventional, lower-strength CBD. It just turned out the "correct" CBD dosage for me a lot higher than I had explored!

Appreciate all the technical advice in this thread.

Thank you!

Not sure where you are located, but if available and you're willing to try again, look for gummies with CBN in them. There are various ratios, 2:1, 4:1, 5:1, 10:3. The 5:1 work really really well for me.

CBN or CBD? Does cannabidiene have an effect other than giving you a headache? Cannabidiol is what my medical provider provides with THC.

In the recent past few years since the stigma of the cannabis plant has calmed down, many more molecules have been identified and isolated.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/beyond-cbd-here-come-the...

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/cannabis-marijuana-and-cann...

I maybe indulge once a year or so in a legal state, although I smoked a bit more in my teens-early 20's.

I have found that if you look for a strain that has a high concentration of THC-V, it will typically be the more fun/giggly/silly experience with a lot of highdeas and almost no munchies.

Durban Poison or Tansie are my recommendations based upon my very light experience, of course, ymmv.

To add another anecdote, I have found that these in particular https://aproperhigh.com/products/edible/plus/lychee-sleep-1-... are noticeably more effective and have less grogginess than other stuff I've tried, and they're the only thing I've found locally with CBN

CBN. Some brands I've tried in the past are Camino, Wyld, and Lights Out.

For me, a THC:CBN combo works wonders for sleep.

I have chronic insomnia and weed definitely keeps me up

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