What Are The Best Terpenes for Sleep?

Picture yourself sunk into a luxurious bubble bath. Candles are lit in the background. You take a deep breath and notice that a calming lavender-chamomile scent has taken over the room. You exhale with relief as you open an adorable pocket-size box, revealing a luscious Miss Grass Quiet Times Mini pre-roll. You light it. The terpene-rich weed gently invites you to chill out, curl up, and sink into some silky sheets. Hello to the beginning of a deep and restful sleep.

If this sounds enticing, follow along and allow your body and mind to recharge with the best terpenes for sleep.

What are terpenes?

If you use essential oils to relieve stress, soothe irritated skin, enjoy a massage, or just freshen up the scent of a room, then you already know the power of terpenes. These mystical little molecules provide each fruit and plant— including cannabis—a distinctive taste and smell. Any scent you can imagine, from a lush piney forest to a tart orange peel, exists because of a complex combination of terpenes. 

These compounds are more than just a fragrant aroma or a delicious taste. Plants produce these tiny but mighty terpenes to repel pests, protect themselves, and attract pollinators. 

Cannabis buds produce over 200 terpenes thanks to those sticky little crystals called trichomes. Once they enter our bodies, terpenes can determine the sensations our favorite strains give us. From the flavor and aroma of the smoke to the thrill of a full-body high, terpenes are the gatekeepers to our senses.

Below, you will find six calming terpenes with effects that aid sleep and promote a sense of calm and relaxation.

​Do terpenes help you sleep?

For centuries, cannabis has been considered as a sleep aid. Modern research has demonstrated that cannabinoids like cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) can induce rest, relaxation, and calm, but what about terpenes? It turns out that the scented frosty coat that covers every single bud is made of a complex blend of terpenes with the potential to balance your mood, enhance creativity, and promote a night of restful sleep. As each terpene has its own unique characteristics and set of effects that works synergistically with other terpenes and cannabinoids, understanding how terpenes work can help you use cannabis more effectively. Let’s take a closer look at how terpenes can help with sleep.

How terpenes help sleep

Ensuring eight restful hours a night is a matter of health and getting your beauty sleep can do wonders. It makes you more patient, less stressed, and—duh—more energetic and alert. Not to mention, it's an important key to overall health and wellbeing.

Although scientists are only just beginning to investigate the compounds that give cannabis its intoxicating aroma, new findings suggest that some terpenes have a natural sedative effect that directly induces sleep, while others take a less direct approach to help you get a good night’s rest. 

Studies have shown how they can ease nervous system activity, slowing the mind and body down, encouraging deep calm, looseness, and drowsiness to help you initiate sleep, and gently tuck you in at night. Other terpenes may have the potential to help make your life easier by potentially reducing stress, soothing inflammation, and easing pain, allowing you to fall between the sheets with a worry-free mind.

When combined with other potent cannabis compounds, terpenes play host to a holistic chemical dance party, known as “the entourage effect.” Grooving with friends like THC and CBD, terpenes enhance their relaxing effects while modulating how cannabis interacts with our bodies. The result can be a therapeutic boost with extra physical relief and mental relaxation. 

Altogether, these sedative terpenes may effectively lengthen deep sleep-time and shorten the time it takes to fall asleep. However, more clinical trials are needed to corroborate these findings as information is constantly evolving, and many studies are still in progress to discover how terpenes promote relaxation, sleep, pain relief, improve mood, and reduce inflammation.

Best terpenes for sleep

​Beta Pinene

Who doesn’t love a fresh, piney aroma? If your weed smells herbal, woody, and pine-like, it is the work of Beta-Pinene. Besides cannabis, this forest-scented terpene can be found in coniferous trees, rosemary, eucalyptus, parsley, dill, basil, and cumin.

This terpene possesses anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties that could balance your mood and promote calm. It has the potential can help you wind down to fall asleep faster and deeper while giving your body the chance to physically heal, recover from illness, and deal with stress. 

Wake up feeling more rejuvenated with high-Beta Pinene strains like Jack Herer, Blue Dream, Strawberry Cough, and Island Sweet Skunk. Miss Grass All Times Minis and All Times Flower are both high in Beta Pinene as well.

​Linalool

Behind the unmistakably calming notes of lavender, we find Linalool, an intensely fragrant compound with the power to induce sleep. Evidence has shown that it’s the perfect terpene for catching some Zzz's, not only for its enchanting candied floral aroma and herbal overtones, but also for the calming way it interacts with our nervous system. 

The Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal published a scientific review in 2013, examining the therapeutic properties of lavender oil, which is rich in Linalool. Evidence links the relaxing effects of this popular essential oil with this flowery terpene, highly studied for its potential to reduce the symptoms of stress and uplift mood. Furthermore, it may strengthen the immune system, ease muscle spasms, relieve pain, alleviate inflammation, and boost the sedating hormone adenosine, all to set you in the right state to help you fall asleep faster and support longer, more restful sleep. Try strains like Master Kush, Pink Kush, and Amnesia Haze and enjoy Linalool’s calming effects, or simply reach for Miss Grass Quiet Times Flower or Quiet Times Minis.

Beta-Caryophyllene (BCP)

Rather than let your worries get the best of you, spice up your nights with ​Beta-Caryophyllene, the peppery terpene that promotes sleep through its stress-relieving effects.

Besides reducing the anxious, spiraly thoughts that keep you tossing and turning into the night, Caryophyllene is the only known terpene with the unique ability to bind directly to CB-2 receptors in the endocannabinoid system. This means that this wonderful terpene could help relieve pain and ease inflammation super effectively. Legendary strains like Girl Scout Cookies, Gorilla Glue #4, OG Kush, and Super Silver Haze contain high amounts of Caryophyllene, as does every single one of our Miss Grass THC options.

Myrcene

Let’s curl up between the sheets and get to know the most abundant cannabis-derived terpene of all. For decades, Myrcene has been studied for its sedative properties—and with good reason. Its presence in cannabis is crucial to differentiating between an upbeat Sativa or a relaxing Indica. If its concentration is higher than 0.5%, common practice within the cannabis industry is to identify that strain as a sedative-leaning Indica, whereas lower concentrations indicate a strain leans Sativa.

Besides cannabis, Myrcene also lends a musky clove-like twist to hops, mangoes, bay leaves, thyme, lemongrass, and ylang-ylang. This earthy-yet-fruity terpene is guilty of giving us that famous “couch-lock effect.” So, while you melt and wind down, Myrcene passes through every corner of your body, easing inflammation, muscle stiffness, and pain. If this sounds inviting to you, strains like Granddaddy Purple, OG Kush, and Purple Kush can give you just what you’re looking for. Or, try Miss Grass All Times or Quiet Times, both of which are high in this chilled-out terp.

Alpha-terpinene

If you are familiar with Tea Tree oil or Anshen oil, then you’ve been in contact with this rare terpene. Alpha-Terpinene is a popular member of the Terpinene family, investigated with other terpenes for its sedative potential. It provides a pleasant, fresh citrusy scent with sweet herbal, woody undernotes. Although it is widely known for reducing digestive issues, it also acts as an efficient analgesic and anti-inflammatory.

​Terpinolene

Bringing you herbaceous hints of fresh pine, delicate floral nuances, and an intense lime overtone is the tantalizing Terpinolene, an aromatically complex primary terpene. According to a 2013 study, this potent compound directly interacts with the central nervous system when inhaled, promoting drowsiness, and inducing sleep. It’s found in lavender, allspice, lilacs, apples, and cannabis, especially in Sensi Star, Ace of Spades, and Dutch Treat strains.

Phytol

Gently drift off into a field of wildflowers with the sweet floral fragrance of Phytol, the terpene that gives Jasmine flowers their characteristic aroma. Indeed, this terpene has been studied for its potential pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, and sedative properties. 

For instance, research has shown that Phytol activates the brain’s GABA system, known for slowing your mind down, reducing stress, helping initiate sleep, and promoting healthy sleep patterns. Not only can it shorten the time it takes you to fall asleep, but it also has the potential to lengthen sleep duration. 

If Phytol’s fragrant scent is what you crave, you can find yourself lying in a meadow of  Sour Diesel, aka “Sour D,” OG Cheese, I-95, or perhaps the pungent OG Kush.

Being aware of how these aromatic compounds work can level up your smoking experience. If you want to enjoy the enhanced therapeutic effects of the synergistic dance between terpenes and cannabinoids, we got you. Start your self-love session and drift off into a world of dreams with the enticing notes of Lavender Honey Pie, which a strain used in some batches of our Quiet Times Flower and Minis. This premium Indica-leaning flower blend mixes the therapeutic properties of Caryophyllene, Linalool, Bisabolol, and Myrcene for a perfectly restful night.