Trouble Sleeping? Try Midnight Moon, Our Newest Essential Strain for Sleep

[00:00:00] Ellen Scanlon: This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over.

[00:00:12] Ellen Scanlon: Are you heading to the Hall of Flowers Cannabis Market and Festival at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds this September? Our friends at Sonoma Hills Farm are hosting an extraordinary dining experience that you will not want to miss. Sonoma Hills Farm is a premium craft cannabis farm and organic culinary garden nestled on 60 acres in Sonoma Valley’s beautiful Petaluma Gap Appalachian.

[00:00:38] Ellen Scanlon: On Saturday, September 21st, at Hall of Flowers, they’re hosting an immersive food experience that celebrates the intersection of chefs, wine, fresh flower, and cuisine. You can experience chef driven demos and education from multiple James Beard Award nominees, top chef contestants, and Michelin star winners.

[00:01:01] Ellen Scanlon: Best of all, you can pre book a sit down, farm to table fried chicken dinner served right inside the event. It’s called the Sonoma Hills Farm Family Meal, and I’ll add a link in the show notes with all the details. I can’t wait to check it out, and hope you will too.

[00:01:24] Madison Aragon: Maybe it’s a little psychological, but with the PTSD, you know, I’ll wake up at like 3 AM pretty consistently. So hitting my midnight moon makes me feel like I’m not going to see that midnight moon.

[00:01:40] Ellen Scanlon: Welcome to how to do the pot, a podcast, helping you feel confident about cannabis. I’m your host, Ellen Scanlon.

[00:01:53] Ellen Scanlon: You just heard from Madison Aragon, the Ohio based assistant brand manager at Arrow Brands. In today’s show, I am excited to introduce how to do the pot’s newest essential strain, Midnight Moon. Have you listened to our essential strain series yet? It’s a growing list of strains that I think everyone should have in their cannabis collection.

[00:02:18] Ellen Scanlon: You may not need them all, but having two or three strains that you love can help you feel more confident and less overwhelmed when you walk into a dispensary. By telling a bud tender the name of a strain that you like, they can guide you to similar strains that will help you feel the way you want. So save this list, which is on our website, do the pot.

[00:02:40] Ellen Scanlon: com. I’ll add a link in the show notes to a special Spotify playlist that includes all of our essential strains episodes. Now let me introduce you to the strain midnight moon. It’s a calming, relaxing strain with such a great name. It reminds me of the beloved children’s book, goodnight moon, and it’s famous final lines.

[00:03:04] Ellen Scanlon: Good night, stars. Good night, air. Good night, noises everywhere. Are you feeling a little sleepy? I used my get a toddler to bed voice. Today’s episode is everything you need to know about midnight moon. We’ll cover how the strain will make you feel and why women love it for sleep. Plus, we have expert tips if you want to try vaping for sleep and we’ll discuss an issue I’ve struggled with, how to open the tricky child resistant packaging on vape cartridges.

[00:03:47] Ellen Scanlon: Want to keep the conversation with us going? Sign up for our twice monthly newsletter and have a direct line into my inbox. The newsletter is full of resources that will help you feel confident about cannabis for health, well being, and for fun. And you can hit reply and let me know what you’d like to hear more of on the show.

[00:04:09] Ellen Scanlon: To join the thousands of subscribers already receiving it, head to do the pot. com to sign up.

[00:04:25] Ellen Scanlon: Let’s get started with all you need to know about Midnight Moon. First, what does it smell and taste like? Midnight Moon tastes like a mix of sweet and fruity berries. When I asked some experienced cannabis consumers about this strain, the delicious taste was the first thing they mentioned. Even if you’re not a big fan of the taste of weed, you’ll probably enjoy the taste of Midnight Moon.

[00:04:54] Ellen Scanlon: I’ve heard people compare this strain to candy. That’s how sweet it is. What does Midnight Moon help with? Midnight Moon is a great nighttime strain. It generally has high THC percentages, more than 20%, which can make it very potent. This means that going slowly is important when you try it for the first time.

[00:05:17] Ellen Scanlon: Take a small hit and see how you feel. The strain is known for helping people dealing with insomnia and depression, and it has very calming effects. How will Midnight Moon make you feel? Midnight Moon will inspire sleep. If you struggle to fall asleep, this strain is what you want for a good night’s rest.

[00:05:39] Ellen Scanlon: If you try a puff of Midnight Moon before you’re ready to fall asleep, expect to be kind of locked to your couch and feeling very chill. Why does cannabis help you get a better night’s sleep? Dr. June Chin, a New York based integrative cannabis physician and the chief medical officer at LeafWell, breaks it down for us.

[00:06:02] Dr. June Chin: Anxiety, stress, chronic sleep deprivation all inhibit GABA, and GABA is a naturally occurring brain chemical that tells our neurons to slow down or stop firing. It also helps induce sleep, relax muscles, and calm down. So basically GABA tells our body to chill out. Well, cannabis modulates GABA in the endocannabinoid system, so it really helps return the body to more normal functions.

[00:06:26] Dr. June Chin: and careful cannabis dosing can help curb racing thoughts that might cause disrupted sleep. It also might curb panic awakenings during the night. So sometimes patients will find that cannabis helps them feel a lot more grounded, decreases the nervous system, turns the volume down on that fight or flight response.

[00:06:47] Ellen Scanlon: Different cannabinoids will affect your sleep differently. THC helps you fall asleep while CBD helps you stay asleep all night. Depending on your sleep issues, some people might need more THC right before bed to sleep soundly for the rest of the night. Others might benefit from a consistent CBD routine in order to sleep well.

[00:07:11] Ellen Scanlon: Remember, it can take up to two weeks of consistent use to feel the effects of CBD. Incorporating smoking cannabis into your bedtime routine has helped many women fall asleep fast. Unlike edibles, which can take 1 2 hours to feel, the effects of smoking are very quick, usually a few minutes. I recommend starting with one or two puffs, then wait 20 30 minutes to see how you feel as the effects are settling in.

[00:07:43] Ellen Scanlon: Ask yourself, do I feel relaxed, do I feel a little sleepy, or am I feeling more uplifted? That awareness is a really important step toward finding the right weed for you. And you’ll feel those effects quickly when you smoke. Stacey Ziel is a Maryland based marketing consultant who has struggled with insomnia for most of her life.

[00:08:08] Ellen Scanlon: She finds that smoking flour before bed is very helpful.

[00:08:12] Stacy Zeal: I’ll smoke flower to help me fall asleep and to help me to start to relax my mind, remove some of that anxiety that I have coming from a long time of not being able to sleep. Right? Like I still sometimes have to be in my head like, Stacey, this has worked for five years.

[00:08:26] Stacy Zeal: It’s okay. You know, you know, it works. Just relax. Or it’s like, this strain is just not great for sleep. Let me, you know, make sure I remember, just not to smoke this before sleep. And that’s okay. So the THC really helps to calm that anxiety that I have about going to sleep.

[00:08:40] Ellen Scanlon: How frequently you consume cannabis will also play a role.

[00:08:44] Ellen Scanlon: Yet, unlike prescription medication, your brain doesn’t build up a tolerance to cannabis in the way that it can with prescriptions. Basically, your brain can prepare to feel high. The more frequently that you consume cannabis, the more ready your brain is to feel its effects. This is what can decrease the potency of the high for heavy and frequent cannabis consumers.

[00:09:11] Ellen Scanlon: But, and here’s why we call this a magical plant. If you choose to consume cannabis as a sleep aid, your body and brain will actually use this as part of your circadian rhythm to help you fall asleep night after night. As your brain kind of predicts the effects of the cannabis, you’ll start to become sleepy and feel ready for bed.

[00:09:36] Ellen Scanlon: To really achieve better sleep with cannabis, think about it from a holistic standpoint. All the parts are connected. Using a combination of CBD and THC in the right ratio can be really helpful for falling asleep and for staying asleep. One study from the National Institutes of Health found that CBD can decrease cortisol levels.

[00:10:01] Ellen Scanlon: Cortisol is known as the stress hormone, and it typically peaks in the morning. People who suffer from insomnia symptoms may also have high cortisol levels at night. CBD can help bring down those levels and allow you longer periods of restful sleep. For Madison Aragon, who you heard from at the beginning of the show, cannabis helps her find relief from night terrors and PTSD.

[00:10:29] Ellen Scanlon: She likes to vape Midnight Moon before bed, and sometimes she adds an edible to ensure she sleeps well all night.

[00:10:36] Madison Aragon: I love the taste, for one, and two, quite honestly, I tried a variety of the hybrid and indica strains by Aero, but this one really just hit home for me. It’s the one that I consistently go to and pick up.

[00:10:51] Madison Aragon: It’s the one that I reach for at night right before I go to sleep. And actually, we just created a gummy version of that one as well, so I’ve been pairing the two together.

[00:11:01] Ellen Scanlon: There are a lot of strains that can help with sleep. I asked Madison what makes Midnight Moon stand out.

[00:11:08] Madison Aragon: I would have to say it definitely is the the overall flavor of the vape itself.

[00:11:13] Madison Aragon: I’ve worked in the cannabis industry for a while now and I’ve I quite honestly don’t love vapes the most. It’s not the first thing I go to pick up, but the convenience of vapes paired with that specific taste is just something that has worked its way into my everyday routine.

[00:11:32] Ellen Scanlon: For people who struggle with sleep issues, experts recommend building a consistent routine to signal to your body when it’s time to rest.

[00:11:42] Ellen Scanlon: Madison shares hers.

[00:11:44] Madison Aragon: After dinner, typically I will grab that vape, maybe watch some TV, hit on it a couple times. And then when I actually get ready for sleep, I will do my skincare routine and I typically have a gummy and then I’ll hit the vape maybe two or three times right before I go to bed. I feel like the vape helps me get that Relaxed feeling to get into bed to start to rest.

[00:12:10] Madison Aragon: But then the gummy actually holds me all the way throughout the night.

[00:12:14] Ellen Scanlon: The stress of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back to sleep is one of the worst feelings, whether you are a regular insomniac or not. A vape pen with a sleep strain can be a great comfort on your bedside table.

[00:12:32] Madison Aragon: Maybe it’s a little psychological, but with the PTSD, you know, I’ll wake up at like 3 a. m. pretty consistently. So hitting my midnight moon makes me feel like I’m not going to see that midnight moon. With that ease of comfort to just grab the vape, it’s not going to be dead. I don’t have to see a light on it.

[00:12:51] Madison Aragon: I don’t even have to open my eyes. To really grab it and use it. That onset is just so quick that I can go back to sleep and I won’t lose any more of that sleep cycle.

[00:13:03] Ellen Scanlon: Madison travels a lot and she loves that midnight moon is a popular strain that you can find in dispensaries all across the country.

[00:13:13] Madison Aragon: I travel fairly often for work or for other various reasons.

[00:13:17] Madison Aragon: And something that I really appreciate is that, you know, going to these other medical and recreational States, I can find Midnight Moon in any of these other markets. So that’s really amazing too. If I’m going to go to Colorado to visit some of my family out there, my medicine is available there as well, which is important.

[00:13:36] Ellen Scanlon: Annie Davis is the California based VP of Marketing at Aero Brands. She has trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Her solution is layering her nighttime cannabis by vaping and taking an edible.

[00:13:52] Annie Davis: I am a fan of layering my cannabis because I both have trouble falling asleep and I also sometimes have trouble staying asleep.

[00:14:00] Annie Davis: And with vaping, just like smoking. Cannabis, the effects are, you know, pretty quick onset. And so that generally can help with my falling asleep at night, but the vaping and smoking doesn’t last more than, you know, in half an hour, 45 minutes sometimes. And so I also consume gummies that have longer lasting effects and can help me stay asleep during the night.

[00:14:24] Annie Davis: So I usually will take a gummy about a half an hour before I go to bed. And then I will vape right before I go to sleep. For me as a cannabis consumer, I am somebody who really uses cannabis as a wind down and relaxation technique. So I generally don’t even start consuming cannabis until the evening.

[00:14:46] Annie Davis: And I’ll, I’ll kind of start about a half an hour before bed.

[00:14:56] Ellen Scanlon: Aero Brands, that’s A I R O, is known for its high design vape pens that come in fun, bright colors and ship nationwide. In licensed dispensaries in 24 states and Puerto Rico, Aero offers premium quality strains like our new essential strain, Midnight Moon, in vape cartridges. If you’re looking for a fast acting way to feel the effects of cannabis, and you want something discreet and convenient, try one of these vape pens.

[00:15:29] Ellen Scanlon: You really can’t smell the smoke, and it’s very easy to take one or two small hits, a microdose, before you hit the sheets. I’m a big fan of Aero, and Annie Davis shares what’s special about Aero’s vape pens.

[00:15:45] Annie Davis: A few things that I really love about the Aerobate pen. Number one, it’s shape. It’s got this nine sided Nanogon design.

[00:15:51] Annie Davis: And as somebody who often leaves my bait pen on my nightstand while I’m sleeping or out on a table, that’s really nice because it doesn’t roll off the table. A lot of those standard 510 thread batteries are just a cylindrical shape and they can roll off a table. It’s really discreet, nothing lights up when you inhale, there’s a vibration that like lets you know it’s working, it vibrates on the draw, and I appreciate that signal.

[00:16:14] Annie Davis: It’s almost like this sensory signal to my body that the plant medicine is, is entering my bloodstream. So it’s a little bit of a psychosomatic experience there. And I love the colors. I, I love the colors. I think there’s a really neat, like, kind of collectability to Aero.

[00:16:29] Ellen Scanlon: There is nothing more frustrating when you’re about to go to bed, feeling sleepy, and you reach for your medicine and your vape, only to find that it is clogged.

[00:16:40] Ellen Scanlon: Aero’s technology solves for this very common issue.

[00:16:44] Annie Davis: The biggest benefit to me is the magnetic connection point between our vape cartridges and the battery itself. One of the results of that is that we have Very, very low clogging rates, and if you’re someone who buys a lot of vape cartridges, especially like live resin, live rosins, these different types of oils that have different viscosities, you’ll know that sometimes you’ll spend 60, 80 on a cartridge, and then part way through using it, it will clog.

[00:17:15] Annie Davis: And we have a very, very low failure rate with these aero cartridges, so as a consumer, you really get a big, big bang for your buck, a lot of value for the money. It does a great job of cooling, it heats the oil so that you can consume it and your body can absorb the cannabinoids from the cannabis oil, but also have a cooling mechanism in our cartridges that results in really smooth draw.

[00:17:40] Annie Davis: So it reduces the potential for throat irritability or coughing, which sometimes can be an issue with vaping and smoking. So, I find the Aero experience to be a really great experience. Intuitive sensory experience and then also smooth in terms of the inhalation experience.

[00:17:58] Ellen Scanlon: Aero Brands has created an intuitive, virtually effortless, and cleverly designed vapor experience.

[00:18:06] Ellen Scanlon: Look for their vape pens or premium strain cartridges in licensed dispensaries and visit aerobrands. com to learn more. That’s A I R O brands dot com. I’ll add a link in the show notes with all the details.

[00:18:28] Ellen Scanlon: Something that can be less intuitive with cannabis is the child resistant packaging. There have been many times when I’ve resorted to scissors after spending too long trying to find my way into the packaging. Annie Davis and I are both moms and we both believe in child resistant or CR packaging.

[00:18:53] Ellen Scanlon: Unfortunately for older adults, people with disabilities or with dexterity issues, sometimes getting these things open seems almost impossible. Annie shares some of the challenges brands face that lead to hard to open weed packaging.

[00:19:08] Annie Davis: There’s a lot of challenges. One of the main challenges that any new child resistant innovation has to be tested many times and qualified by third party before it can be certified as child resistant.

[00:19:22] Annie Davis: And so this means innovation and improvements in child resistant packaging can be both costly and time intensive for brands to customize packaging. And so most cannabis companies are resorting to off the shelf child resistant solutions instead of building packaging from the ground up.

[00:19:42] Ellen Scanlon: Packaging labels also differ by state.

[00:19:45] Ellen Scanlon: The sticky labels on the package might be the culprit if you’re up against a vape cartridge that seems especially difficult to open.

[00:19:54] Annie Davis: So one of the challenges and complexities in cannabis is that we have to use labels. for compliance purposes, labels for ingredients purposes, and there’s limited real estate on these packages.

[00:20:05] Annie Davis: And so sometimes depending on who’s labeling and who in the supply chain is actually affixing the label to the box, you will get the results of like a misplaced label on a box that actually covers the portion where the consumer needs to actually figure out how to open the box. Having different packaging by state does produce complexity.

[00:20:24] Annie Davis: And so in terms of how the labels and the boxes are

[00:20:26] Ellen Scanlon: connected. I asked Annie if she has some tips to make this process easier.

[00:20:32] Annie Davis: Start with your Budtender. They’ll have some tips and tricks of how to open your favorite cannabis products packaging. Or if you’re new to the brand or new to cannabis, you can certainly ask around and find which brands have the most disability friendly child resistant packaging.

[00:20:46] Annie Davis: Or, you know, we recommend asking a friend or a relative to open your packaging and transfer the contents into a different container. You shouldn’t have to press very hard on the spots where you open the cannabis packaging. So it’s more about understanding the nuances of how the sliding mechanism works rather than a certain amount of pressure on the CR package.

[00:21:08] Ellen Scanlon: Vape cartridges sometimes come with the strain name printed on the product, but not always. If you have more than one or two of them, it can be hard to keep track of what is what. I am a very neat person and I love a good organizing tip. I asked Annie how she keeps track of what she has.

[00:21:28] Annie Davis: My approach is to use a fine tip Sharpie marker to help differentiate.

[00:21:33] Annie Davis: I will use that generally to mark for myself, not per se what the strain is, but more so to remind myself what is a sativa or an indica or a hybrid. Within the Aero portfolio, we do use our colored mouthpieces to delineate between dominances on our strain series, live flower, live resin, and live rosin.

[00:21:57] Annie Davis: And cross those series, we have a system where our orange mouthpieces signal sativa, green will signal hybrid, and blue will signal indica. I also have seen other people who vape more than I do have like a little filing box for their vapes, where they’ll organize their vapes into sections by dominance or by oil type.

[00:22:20] Ellen Scanlon: A quick recap. Midnight Moon is a fruity, sweet nighttime strain that will help you fall asleep fast. While these effects are typically how you’ll feel after consuming Midnight Moon, please remember that cannabis is a plant. Plants grown in different places will be a little different, and the same goes for you.

[00:22:44] Ellen Scanlon: Weed affects everyone differently. I really recommend starting slowly until you know how you want to feel. You didn’t give up on love forever after a middle school heartbreak, right? So try a new strain, pay attention to how you feel and have fun. I hope these tips are useful and give you one less thing to worry about before you get to bed.

[00:23:08] Ellen Scanlon: What other strains would you like to hear about? Email us at hi at do the pot. com and let me know. And if you like this episode, please share it with a friend. We love new listeners and are here to help everyone feel confident about cannabis.

[00:23:28] Ellen Scanlon: Thank you for listening to this episode of how to do the pot. For lots more information and past episodes, visit do the pot. com. That’s also where you can sign up for how to do the pots newsletter. If you like how to do the pot, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It really helps more people find the show.

[00:23:50] Ellen Scanlon: Thank you to producers, Maddie fair and Nick Patriot. I’m Ellen Scanlon and stay tuned for more of how to do the pot.

[00:24:03] Ellen Scanlon: Is drinking alcohol before bed disrupting your sleep? Try Cann instead. It’s drinkable, delicious cannabis that’s as refreshing and sociable as your favorite cocktail, but hold the booze. Use promo code DoThePot for 20 percent off when you visit drinkcann. com. That’s drink C A N N. Try a Cann today and have a great night’s sleep with no hangover.