How does the time of day that you consume cannabis affect your experience?

Some cannabis users love to wake and bake first thing in the morning. Others end their workday with a 4:20pm cannabis session. People who use cannabis to improve their sleep often enjoy an herbal nightcap just before bed. Many cannabis users have a specific time of the day that they prefer to consume cannabis—and generally their preferred time depends on why they are using cannabis. But did you know that the time of day that you ingest a cannabis product might affect how it makes you feel? According to experts in cannabis wellness, there are at least 15 factors that can impact your cannabis experience. The time of day that you ingest cannabis or CBD may be one of the most important factors impacting your experience. Jointly supports 6 times of day:

• Early Morning
• Late Morning
• Early Afternoon
• Late Afternoon
• Evening
• Night

When you report your cannabis consumption on Jointly, you can the track which time of day you use cannabis in order to determine how this factor affects your experience.

Perhaps you will discover that when your goal is to enhance focus and creativity, you have the best results when you take a 1:1 THC:CBD edible in the early morning. But when you consume the same cannabis product in the late afternoon, you experience adverse side effects like drowsiness.

Our data indicates that Jointly works best when you report at least 10 cannabis sessions. If you only fill out a few reports and then stop, you won’t have enough data to start to see trends and improve how you consume cannabis.

Why the time of day you ingest weed matters

In the same way that different ingestion methods can produce different effects, consuming the same cannabis product at different times of day may produce different effects or side effects. Chronotherapy is the idea that administering drugs at different times of the circadian rhythm can minimize side effects and maximize therapeutic effects.

The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour biological clock that allows organisms to perceive daily environmental cues and respond to them. Everything from metabolism to gene expression is affected by the circadian rhythm.

According to Erik Herzog, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis, “Almost every drug that’s out there probably could be optimized in terms of the time of day it’s delivered.”

However, cannabis is not a typical pharmaceutical drug. Cannabis is a plant that contains hundreds of different chemical compounds including cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids. Different cannabis strains and products have varying levels of these compounds—a reality that complicates cannabis research.

There is no scientifically rigorous research into how using cannabis at different times of day affects a cannabis user’s experience. However, there is evidence that cannabis may produce different effects at different times in a person’s circadian rhythm.

A 2020 article in Translational Neuroscience concluded: “Evidence supports the influence of circadian rhythms on the levels of endocannabinoids, which in turn regulate the clinical efficacy of cannabinoids. While routes of administration have been discussed previously, optimization of the time of day of cannabis administration should be given equal, if not more, consideration when designing a study.” However, designing studies that consider circadian timing is very challenging as people have different sleep schedules and circadian rhythms.

According to Francis Levi, a biomedical researcher who specializes in chronotherapy at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, “If you want to time chronotherapy then you must do it according to the timing of the person you are going to treat.”

The best way to find out how consuming cannabis or CBD at different times of the day affects you is to use Jointly to track your cannabis consumption. If you can determine how taking a cannabis product at different times of the day affects you, you can purposefully consume cannabis at different points in your circadian rhythm in order to achieve your wellness goals.

What is wake and bake?

The phrase “wake and bake” refers to consuming cannabis when you first wake up. Many cannabis users note that taking a puff of a wax pen or eating an edible in the morning produces a more intense experience than consuming the same product later in the day.

While the phrase “wake and bake” has a bit of a stigmatized connotation, many people start their day with a purposeful dose of cannabis or CBD.

For example, medical marijuana patients who use cannabis to manage neuropathic pain may need to take several puffs of cannabis vapor before they get out of bed in order to manage their symptoms. But non-medical cannabis users can also benefit from consuming cannabis in the morning.

According to Dr. Alice Flaherty from the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, “Marijuana is a stimulant.” People who are sensitive to caffeine but still seek a morning pick-me-up may find their solution in a microdose of cannabis.

Of course, there is no need to abstain from coffee or other caffeinated drinks as you enjoy a purposeful dose of cannabis in the morning. Cannabis users who start their morning with a mug of green or black tea can benefit from the high-enhancing effects of these companion foods.

People who wake up in a bad mood or with mild anxiety may also benefit from a morning dose of cannabis, according to a recent study. Researchers explored whether cannabis users’ morning mood affected their likelihood of using cannabis that day. They found that “the likelihood of using cannabis on a given day was greater when morning positive affect was lower than one’s average, suggesting that people may use the drug to restore positive affect to more typical levels.”

Despite these findings, the researchers indicate that the results do not suggest self-medication “because neither hostile nor anxious mood contributed to later cannabis use.”

CBD in the morning

While people often use CBD to improve their sleep, animal studies suggest that CBD may be wake-promoting and could be used to treat excessive daytime sleepiness.

CBD is a non-intoxicating cannabinoid used to treat muscle soreness and other common ailments. Many people incorporate CBD oil into their morning wellness routine.

Using CBD in the morning is so common that at many coffee shops around the United States you can add a dose of CBD to your morning cold brew.

Using cannabis in the afternoon

Some people find certain cannabis strains or products stimulating and choose to combat their mid-afternoon slump with a few puffs of a weed pen. Others want to unwind after a long day with a few drops of CBD oil. People use cannabis in the afternoon to relax, to replace a glass of wine, or to escape after a long day of work.

Using cannabis in the afternoon is so common that “420”—referring to the time 4:20pm—has become a code word for cannabis.

Why do so many people prefer to consume cannabis in the late afternoon or early evening? Fascinatingly, the circadian rhythm may play a role in why people prefer to consume cannabis at those times. CB1 receptors in the brain are responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis, but recent research has revealed that there is “a more pronounced expression of CB1 receptors in the late afternoon and evening, periods commonly associated with increased drug use.”

Based on these findings, people may feel more intense effects from the same cannabis product if they consume it in the late afternoon or evening compared to other times of day.

Using cannabis at night

While cannabis has stimulating properties, it has a long history of being used as a sleep aid. There is evidence that the effects of cannabis are biphasic and depend on dose, where a low dose stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight), but a high dose stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).

If you are using cannabis to improve your sleep at night, you might want to consume a larger dose than if you are working a night shift and using cannabis to stay alert.

Optimize when you consume cannabis

The ingestion method you choose will determine the onset, the duration, and the intensity of psychoactive or therapeutic effects. Due to differences in onset and duration of effects, you may have better results if you choose an ingestion method that is suited to the time of day that you are ingesting.

For example, if you are using edibles to improve your sleep, you might find that ingesting in the early evening works best as the effects peak right as you are settling into bed.

Whether you are using CBD oil capsules, high-THC dab pens, edible gummies, or cannabis-infused tinctures, Jointly can help you optimize when and how to consume your favorite cannabis products so that you can enjoy consistent cannabis wellness experiences.

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Whether you want to improve sleep, relieve daily stress, or just relax and refresh, Jointly can help you reach your goals with cannabis.  

With Jointly, you can shop your top-rated products, and save lists of your favorites to share and bring to your local dispensary to help guide your shopping experience.  

The Jointly app also helps you improve your cannabis experiences by uncovering what’s working and what’s not with reflections and personalized insights. In fact, the quality of your diet, how much you slept, who you’re with, and the time of day are just some of the factors that can impact your cannabis experience.  

So if you're ready to find your best products and enjoy your perfect cannabis experience, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or shop your matches on the Jointly website. Discovery awaits.