How Long Does It Take for CBD Oil to Work? CBD products, like CBD oil, continue to gain popularity for a variety of uses—according to Business News Daily, the United States CBD market will grow to $20 billion in the next two years.
And with this popularity comes news users with many questions, like “How long does it take CBD to work?”.
The duration varies due to multiple factors. Read on for detailed insights into each factor and find your answers.
Related: Here’s What to Look for When Shopping for CBD Oil
How CBD Oil Interacts With the Body
CBD, a natural compound in cannabis, is diluted with carrier oils like hemp seed or coconut oil to create CBD oil.
Also, This natural substance has been the subject of many research studies showing various potential benefits, including:
- Reducing inflammation
- Relieving chronic pain
- Helping treat anxiety disorders
- Lowering blood pressure
- Improving sleep
- Treating psychosis symptoms
CBD interacts with your endocannabinoid system, which regulates your sleep, mood, immune response, pain, and appetite and helps your body maintain homeostasis. This system also produces endocannabinoids that help bring your body back to normal after experiencing mental and physical stress.
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A Brief Note About CBD Bioavailability
The bioavailability of CBD is one factor that determines how fast (or slow) you can expect to feel the effects of CBD oil.
Bioavailability refers to how fast and how much CBD your body absorbs into your bloodstream. And every type of CBD (oils, tinctures, edibles, etc.) has a different bioavailability rate.
To accelerate CBD's effects, grasp bioavailability and choose products with quicker delivery. Learn more for speedier results.
What Affects How Long It Takes CBD to Work?
Why do some CBD products take effect faster? Why do some seem so potent while others don’t work so well? Let’s find out.
Dosage
If you’re not experienced in using CBD oil, you’ll want to start with a small dose. However, if you take too little, you might not feel anything at all, leaving you unsure if CBD oil can help you.
Plus, CBD dosages can be confusing, and they vary between products.
For example, if you consume CBD edibles (gummies, soft gels, capsules, etc.), they typically express the dosage per unit, which doesn’t offer much flexibility when it comes to dosing.
On the other hand, CBD oil makes starting with a small dose easy but calculating it isn’t always straightforward. CBD oil often comes in dropper bottles, indicating CBD content (e.g., 1,500 mg) and liquid volume (30 mL). How does this affect dosage?
First, most CBD oil droppers are 0.05 ml. Continuing with the example above, 1,500 mg / 30 mL means the oil contains 50 mg/mL, making each dropper full of CBD oil contain 2.5 mg of CBD.
When using CBD oil sublingually (dropping the oil under your tongue), you’ll likely begin feeling the effects almost immediately.
Related: Can People Take Pet CBD Oil?
Concentration
When talking about dosage, we mentioned a bottle of CBD oil containing 1,500 mg / 30 mL; however, CBD oils and products come in various concentrations and can contain minimal CBD or an extremely high amount—this concentration affects how long it will take your CBD oil to work.
There are many different concentrations available; however, most CBD companies sell oils in potencies of 300 mg to 1,000 mg. And each of these potencies comes in different sizes of bottles, usually ranging from 15 mL to 60 mL.
As a general rule, higher concentrations of CBD will have stronger effects and start working faster; however, it varies from person to person.
Using the calculation we talked about above to determine a CBD product’s mg / mL can help you determine how strong a dose is:
- Low strength: under 5 mg / mL
- Medium strength: 15 to 30 mg / mL
- High strength: 30 to 60 mg / mL
- Ultra-high strength (or “CBD concentrated”): over 60 mg / mL
Delivery Methods
How you consume CBD and the type of products you use also affects how quickly it will start working. Topical CBD products (lotions, moisturizers, roll-on gels, etc.) can take effect almost immediately.
Edible CBD products take the longest to take effect—typically around 90 minutes; however, while ingesting CBD orally takes longer, the effects usually last longer, too.
CBD oil is the middle ground—depending on how you use it, you can feel the effects anywhere from right away to about an hour. For example, if you place a drop or two of CBD oil under your tongue, you’ll feel the effects very soon, but if you add it to a drink and swallow it, it can take longer before you feel the effects.
Wondering if CBD can help you sleep? Try our sleep gels that combine CBD, CBN, and melatonin for a good night’s sleep!
Other Factors
Other variables that can affect how long it takes your CBD oil to work include:
- How often you use it: Your frequency of usage determines how long CBD oil takes to work and stays in your system. If you use CBD regularly, it builds up over time in your body—that’s why we recommend new CBD users try it for at least a week before determining whether or not it works for you.
- Your body: Everyone is different, and CBD affects everyone differently. Your water content, metabolism, body mass index, etc., all affect how quickly CBD will work for you.
- Your diet: When, what, and how much you eat also matters. If you use CBD oil right after eating, it will take longer to put out its full effects. However, when it reaches peak concentration, the effects are typically stronger than taking it on an empty stomach. CBD also stays around longer when you are fed compared to when you haven’t eaten.
So, the time it takes for CBD to start working can vary drastically based on your lifestyle, how much you take, how often you use it, and the type of products you choose.
You can expect to feel the CBD oil’s effects within 15 minutes, but if you ingest edible CBD products, it can take longer—usually around 90 minutes—to kick in.
