In any industry, there comes a time when people get bored with the same type of products and actively seek out alternatives. This phenomenon is quite common in the cannabinoid industry, people are now tired of plain old CBD products and want to explore some lesser-known cannabinoids.
For those who don’t know, cannabinoids are natural plant compounds that are full of healing and therapeutic effects. When used properly, they can help you manage your everyday anxiety, sleep, pain, stress, and appetite issues.
CBN is a lesser-known cannabinoid, but it’s being touted as the best product for improving your sleep. You can easily find CBN for sleep on sale on most of the popular CBD brand sites these days. If you are planning to buy CBN for the first time but don’t know how long it takes to kick in, this article is all you need to read.
Source:Cobocbd.com
What is CBN?
CBN or cannabinol, is one of the 100+ healing compounds found in cannabis plants. It’s known for its strong nerve-calming and slightly sedating effects. The reason behind this lies in its origin.
Unlike other cannabinoids, CBN is not present in young and developing cannabis plants. It’s only found in cured, dried, or matured cannabis plants. Why? Because it forms when THC ( a popular cannabinoid ) breaks down due to the process of oxidation over some time.
So as a cannabis plant matures, THC levels go down and CBN level shoots up. You can say that it’s a weaker form of THC, so it doesn’t carry the same strong intoxicating effects but does get mildly psychoactive in higher doses.
This gives an edge to CBN over other cannabinoids when it comes to improving sleep quality. CBN makes your body more relaxed and slightly sedate as compared to CBD, CBG, CBDV, and other such popular cannabinoids.
Will CBN Make you high?
No, gulping down CBN gummies won’t make you high. Despite originating from THC, CBN is still very less potent in terms of causing a high. All legally sold cannabinoid products can not have more than 0.3% THC in them. So whether you buy CBN gummies, oils, vapes, or capsules, no product will have enough THC to make you high.
Users report that it makes them feel more relaxed and drowsy, but not high or tippy. So it’s a notch above regular CBD products, but way below the high caused by pure THC products.
How long will CBN take to kick in?
The exact time CBN takes to work depends on multiple factors such as your body chemistry, metabolism, medication history, tolerance levels, and severity of the condition you are trying to treat with it.
But one factor that plays the most significant role is the form in which you consume CBN. There are tons of CBN products available now such as gummies, oils, capsules, creams, beverages, vapes, and more.
Each will result in a different onset time based on the form’s bioavailability score. For those who don’t know, these scores determine how fast and how much a compound gets absorbed in the body. Let’s learn about it in detail:
Sublingual Administration- CBN Oils & Tinctures
This is the most common way of consuming cannabinoids. It involves putting a few drops of CBN-rich oils or tinctures under your tongue and waiting for a few minutes. The oil gets absorbed within 15-30 seconds through blood capillaries present under the tongue.
Once fully absorbed, it takes around 15-20 minutes for CBN’s relaxing effects to kick in. The bioavailability in this method is around 12 to 35 percent. Some people don’t like this due to the lack of flavors and the odd earthy hemp taste of oils.
Oral Consumption- CBN Gummies, Softgels & Capsules
The next best method is to chew some delicious CBN gummies. Gummies come in unique and refreshing flavors and save you from the odd hemp taste. However, the onset time is very low, gummies, softgels and capsules can take around between 40 minutes to 2 hours to kick in.
This happens because gummies first pass through your digestive system before getting metabolized, which is a lengthy process. The bioavailability score for this method of consumption is around 13 to 19 percent.
Inhaling- Vapes and Flowers
Inhaling CBN-rich smoke is the fastest way to experience CBN’s healing and therapeutic effects. When you take a few puffs of CBN vape or smoke a rolled flower, the smoke reaches your lungs and gets absorbed very fast.
You may feel a wave of calmness taking over you just after 2-3 puffs, or a few seconds to 3-4 minutes. The bioavailability in this method of consumption is around 11 to 45 percent. However, this is probably the most risky method of using CBN. In the long term use smoke from vapes and flowers can cause respiratory issues.
Topical Application: CBN creams, gels & sprays.
Topical application is a great way to enjoy CBN’s antimicrobial and rejuvenating effects. It can provide you with localized relief from sore muscles, itchy skin, inflamed tissues, and swollen joints.
You can do daily massage with CBN-rich creams and gels, or sprays for fast relief. It will get absorbed through skin pores and start working within 20 minutes of application.
However, the bioavailability is the method of administration is lowest and stands around at just 5 percent. This is for external pain and inflammation relief only though, it won’t help you with anxiety, stress, and sleep issues.
The Final Part
To sum it up, how fast CBN kicks in depends greatly on your method of consumption. Inhaling CBN-rich smoke will work fastest, and will hardly take a few minutes whereas eating it in the form of gummies will lead to a slow onset time of up to two hours.
CBN oils provide a solid middle ground and only take around 10-15 minutes to kick in. All methods have their pros and cons, so maybe try them all and stick with one that works best for you. Regardless of which CBN product you finally choose, just make sure to get it only from reputed and well-tested brands like Colorado Botanicals.
