Taking CBD and getting a headache can be frustrating, even though CBD is known to support relaxation, stress reduction, and headache relief — especially if you have a Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency (CED).
Wrong or high CBD doses can cause drowsiness headaches. Low-quality brands might have toxic ingredients leftover and without proper lab testing. CBD can interact with other drugs causing unwanted side effects. CBD might not be the direct headache cause. Identifying your correct dose.
- Use our FREE CBD Dosage Calculator to figure out how much CBD is in each drop of your specific CBD oil. Understanding what serving size works best for your body type is the best way to start figuring out how to take CBD without getting a headache.
- Next, you want to avoid cheap gas station brands and only use quality brands made in America with Third Party Lab testing. Low quality brands can have bad added ingredients.
- Finally, you might want to consider speaking with your primary care physician to make sure CBD isn’t negatively interacting with other drugs your taking or abreactions with your condition.
Our list of the 5 best CBD products only recommends items from premium brands to help you best find the type of CBD that works best for you.
Learn more: CBD Causing Irritability? Can CBD Oil Cause Aggression Or Anger?
Let’s take a look below and see if we can further identify other possible reasons why you might be experiencing headaches after taking CBD.
Does CBD Actually Give Headaches As One Of The Side Effect?
Since everyone has unique body chemistry, there could be some people who react in a way that causes headaches or allergic reactions.
CBD is a cannabinoid that’s naturally found in the cannabis or hemp plant providing nutrients to the endocannabinoid system (ECS).
The ECS has a primary function is to regulate balance and homeostasis throughout the entire body.
While there are four basic types of headaches (migraine, tension, sinus, & cluster) there are up to several dozens of different types of headaches and various potential combinations of headaches
The actual cause of headaches might be a little more complex than taking a pure and clean high-quality CBD product from a trusted brand.
If you find yourself consistently getting headaches, directly after taking CBD, it might be several potential other possibilities.
Potential reasons why your CBD might give you a headache include.
- It’s a contaminated full-spectrum oil and contains the a higher amounts of psychoactive THC molecule than the label says — this is why it’s alway important to double check the lab test results on the Certificate Of Analysis (COA) for the CBD product your about to purchase an regularly use.
- It’s a purified CBD isolate and doesn’t have any other beneficial cannabinoid to trigger the entourage effect.
- You didn’t take enough of a quality CBD oil brand – find the best dosage that work for you by calculating how much CBD is in each drop of CBD here and slowly increasing your dose until you achieve the desired results.
- You took too much of a quality or low quality brand.
- The low quality method the CBD oil was extracted might still contain impurities or left over extraction solvent.
- You’re smoking CBD flower, vape cartridge, or eLiquid and the smoke (or nicotine) is triggering issues.
- CBD is interacting with your other medication you’re taking. Check CBD drug interactions here.
- You’re not drinking enough water after taking CBD and you’re moderately dehydrated.
- You might have an allergy to CBD.
- You’re taking a synthetic CBD.
- CBD wears off and you need to take more.
CBD and other cannabinoids typically don’t cause headaches, nor are headaches a verified side effect.
Although it’s rare, there are people who are allergic to CBD and other cannabinoids.
According to the journal of Cannabis And Cannabinoid Research, a cannabinoid deficiency can be associated with headaches that transform into migraines.
CBD safety and effects research doesn’t specifically list headaches as a side effect of CBD, however, hypertension or lightheadedness might contribute to the reason why you’re getting a headache after taking CBD.
When taking too much CBD during the daytime or at work, higher CBD doses can make you sleepy, thus triggering irritability or even anger.
Can CBD Make Headache Worse?
When taken at the correct dose, CBD is supposed to make headaches better.
Calculate your CBD dosage here.
However, some reports suggest when you take too much CBD, some unpleasant side effects can crop up and potentially cause what appears to be a headache.
After consuming a large dosage of CBD, another set of effects are triggered into action.
Due to the biphasic nature of CBD, at a lower dose, you can expect to have CBD wake you up and smooth out your day.
Whereas, when you take a higher dose, CBD produces more sedative effects.
If you’re taking a larger dose at the beginning of your day, you might not necessarily be experiencing a “headache” so much as you might be experiencing the sedative effects.
Feeling excessively sleeping at the beginning of the day, and then attempting to function at a high level, can cause stress and tension — when you actually are wanting to just roll over and go to sleep.
There is definitely some pain/stress in forcing yourself to stay awake when every part of you is just wanting to lay your head down and go to sleep.
Are Headaches A Side Effect Of CBD?
Depending on the dose, CBD can have seemingly opposite effects.
At lower doses, you typically experience wakefulness and with higher doses you usually experience sleepiness.
Side effects of CBD include: (Source 1) (Source 2) (Source 3)
- Tiredness
- Drowsiness
- Diarrhea
- Weight change
- Appetite change
- Dry mouth
- Low blood pressure
- Light headedness
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Irritability
By finding the proper dosage that works for you is the best way to avoid unwanted side effects.
Can You Get A Headache When CBD Wears Off?
Depending on the type of headache you have, when CBD wears off, you might still have the original headache.
If you took CBD to get rid of your initial headache, and your headache came back after CBD wore off, you might need to consume more.
Before taking more CBD, it’s best you take care of the other fundamentals condusive to a healthy body and mind.
To take care of you headache, drink lots of water and continue fine tuning what CBD dosage works best for you.
Can you get a CBD withdrawal headache?
While the research below reports there’s no physical dependence issues with CBD, it’s likely you wont experience headaches from CBD withdrawal.
Although addiction and dependence can have a psychological aspect to it, there’s a possibility you can experience discomfort in transitioning away from using CBD on a regular basis.
According to Harvard and the World Health Organization (WHO), CBD in humans has no signs of abuse or dependence.
In numerous controlled and open trials, CBD is shown to have an general tolerance with a high safety profile.
Results of controlled human CBD studies doesn’t report any potential physical dependence or subsequent effects of dependence.
At this time, there are no reports of CBD abuse or dependence while using pure CBD.
There are also no reports of a public health problem associated with CBD use.
How long does CBD withdrawal last?
Whole plant cannabis withdrawal symptoms can last up to 30 days or more.
Typically, when consuming whole plant cannabis, symptoms can start showing up within 24 hours and can last for about a two week.
Since there are no reports of abuse or dependence on pure CBD alone, if you’re smoking a cannabis hemp CBD flower, you may be exposed to different chemicals that might cause withdrawal symptoms.
According to the Journal Of The American Medical Association (JAMA), cannabinoid withdrawal start developing within seven days.
Potential whole cannabis flower cannabinoid withdrawal symptoms include:
- Irritability
- Anger
- Nervousness
- Anxiety
- Sleep disturbance
- Appetite disturbance
- Weight disturbance
- Restlessness
- Depressed
- Somatic symptoms
- Headaches
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Abdominal pain
Although the JAMA doesn’t specifically call out CBD, they study is based on cannabinoids.
If you have at least two of the above listed symptoms, you may have Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD).
Do you need to wean off CBD oil?
Since CBD by itself isn’t reported to have abuse of physical dependence issues, you most likely do not have to wean yourself off.
Due to there being no dependence issues, you can either choose to wean yourself off slowly or stop cold turkey.
By weaning yourself off of CBD, you might be able to observe yourself to see exactly how much CBD has been helping you.
Stopping CBD oil cold turkey, is it safe?
Due to CBD studies reporting no abuse or physical dependence, stopping CBD oil cold turkey should be relatively safe.
If you’ve gotten use to taking CBD regularly for different issues, stopping cold turkey might bring back certain issues you started taking CBD oil for in the first place.
Can any types of CBD give you a headache?
CBD is available to consume in several different methods, with each method of consumption producing different potential reasons for causing a headache.
CBD isolate headache
If CBD isolate is giving you a headache, see the list of ingredients to verify it’s not something else giving you a headache.
Try consuming a broadspectrum CBD oil that has other cannabinoids to help improve the effect of the various cannabinoids — via the entourage effect.
The entourage effect is when a variety of cannabinoids work together to make each function better and more efficiently.
CBD vape pen gives me a headache
Consuming CBD from a vape pen can has several other potential ingredients and base carrier oils.
If you’re CBD vape is giving you a headache, try a different brand that uses a different extraction method.
You can also request a recent lab report to verify there’s no other extra ingredients or toxins that might be causing your headache — such as pesticides, heavy metals, etc.
CBD flower gives me a headache
Smoking CBD flower will still have some THC in it, plus smoke from combusting dried plant matter.
Different strains of hemp/cannabis CBD flower will have different spectrums of cannabinoids.
If you’re experiencing headaches from smoking CBD flower, try smoking less, vaporizing the flower, trying a different strain, or consuming CBD in a different form.
CBD tincture gives me a headache
When people get headaches from taking a CBD tincture, the usual reason is because they’re initally taking too much.
Try lowering your dose significantly until you can find the proper balance that works best for you throughout the day.