IS WEED ACTUALLY MESSING WITH YOUR SLEEP?

I recently spent five days moving from New York City to Salt Lake City with a duffel bag, my lap-tippity-top, and about a dozen varieties of fruit-flavored edibles to mellow the harsh of hotel room beds. After 10 hours behind the wheel, I’d pull up to a Best Western, eat my candied weed, and then melt effortlessly into the lumpy mattress. It was bliss.

But by the time I’d settled into my new home, that little road trip sleep hack had slid into an every night thing—and I started to wonder about the science behind my habit. As a health reporter, I’ve heard from experts that any kind of nightly sleep medication is a big no-no for our long-term snooze quality. So, was regular THC* use good for my ZZZs? Or was it actually making things worse? I put on my reporter hat and set out to do some investigating.

On my quest for truth, I learned that around 70% of cannabis enthusiasts “casually” use weed (in some form or another) to wind down at night. And, unsurprising to me, it seems to really help in the short term: In a randomized trial from late last year, 181 adults kept sleep diaries while steadily increasing cannabis use frequency over 12 weeks. The result? Sleep quality was, across the board, notably higher on weed nights. Another study also showed that occasional use may make it easier for people with chronic insomnia to fall asleep, and help them snooze for longer.

Still, a skeptic by trade, I couldn’t rest easy without a gut check from the pros. I reached out to Nicole Bowles, PhD, an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University, and… cue the sad trombone. “Unfortunately, in terms of benefits, the current research stops there,” she told me. In fact, Bowles explained that a lot of research around cannabis and sleep has actually uncovered some pretty substantial downsides.

While testing weed consumption in over 250,000 Americans of various ages, Bowles and her colleagues discovered that frequent cannabis use caused irregular sleep durations—either less than seven hours or greater than nine per night—which are both risk factors “for a number of chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease,” she says. Plus, when heavier pot users (those who had smoked at least five times per week for three months prior to the study) abruptly stopped, they reported more sleep disturbances.

So, what’s an herb-loving, fussy snoozer to do? The experts I spoke to all recommended first seeing a doctor to determine the cause of your sleep issues. “If it’s insomnia, which is the most common sleep disorder and tends to be chronic in nature, my recommendation is to seek out the most effective treatment, which is neither a substance nor a medication but cognitive behavioral therapy,” says Wendy Troxel, PhD, a sleep scientist at the RAND Corporation and adjunct professor at the universities of Pittsburgh and Utah. This typically involves activities such as breathing exercises for relaxation or counseling that’s aimed at shifting anxious thoughts around sleep.

Still, on nights when nothing seems to help, folks who want to use weed for sleep should “start low and go slow,” says Karim Ladha, MD, a cannabis researcher and assistant professor of anesthesia at the University of Toronto. “The goal is to try and use the smallest dose possible at which you might derive some benefit, without experiencing any unpleasant side effects that are more likely to occur at higher [THC] doses.” Jordan Tishler, MD, a physician who helps patients manage various medical issues using cannabis, suggests starting with 5mg of THC.

Given the mixed research on cannabis as a sleep aid, I’m trying not to instinctively reach for edibles every night. Instead, I first look myself square in the mirror and ask: “Ali, are you really not tired, or do you just want a little treat?” If I’m honest, these days it’s usually the latter, and for that I have an emergency chocolate drawer.

– Ali Francis

*THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, and is the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana that produces a high. CBD, the non-trippy ingredient in weed, has been shown to make people sleepy at high doses (like 160mg), but more awake at low doses (like 15mg).