Millions of Americans use marijuana to sleep, but new study raises troubling questions
A new Northwestern Medicine study of 1,266 participants found that marijuana use worsens objective sleep quality, despite users reporting no subjective difference.
The study, which monitored participants from young adulthood into middle age, revealed that cannabis users experienced more sleep disruption and lower sleep efficiency compared to non-users. Participants wore sleep monitors on their wrists for a week in middle age, allowing researchers to compare objective measurements with subjective reports.
Objective vs. subjective sleep
What makes this study particularly interesting is that participants who used cannabis demonstrated objectively poorer sleep, yet their own assessments of sleep quality did not reflect those differences. In other words, someone may believe marijuana is helping them sleep, while objective measurements suggest otherwise.
What makes this study particularly interesting is that participants who used cannabis demonstrated objectively poorer sleep, yet their own assessments of sleep quality did not reflect those differences.
Study findings
Among all participants, greater lifetime exposure to marijuana was linked to worse objective sleep quality. Those with higher cannabis usage over time generally slept for a lower percentage of the night and experienced more sleep disruption. Recent users were also more likely to sleep longer than eight hours per night.
Researchers considered multiple outside factors including age, race, sex, smoking frequency, alcohol consumption, and physical activity. Even with these factors accounted for, the study found a consistent correlation between cannabis use and poorer objectively measured sleep.
Expert reactions
Our data do not support the belief that cannabis is helpful as a sleep aid, said senior study author Mercedes R. Carnethon, Ph.D. As cannabis becomes increasingly available and accepted, it's important to better understand its long-term associations with health behaviors such as sleep.
It is not surprising that the actual quality of sleep of these subjects, after chronic marijuana use, is poor compared to those who do not smoke marijuana because people who claim that they need to smoke marijuana before they go to sleep, in order to relax, are only kidding themselves.
Broader implications
The researchers found that greater cumulative cannabis exposure was associated with reduced sleep efficiency, increased sleep fragmentation, and more time spent awake after initially falling asleep. These findings raise important questions about whether habitual marijuana use is a sustainable strategy for managing sleep problems.
Scientists note that more research needs to be done to determine the long-term effects of cannabis use on sleep. The mode of cannabis consumption, such as smoking versus taking edibles, was not considered in this study. Fox News Digital recently reported on other cannabis findings linking use to increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.
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