Can cannabis or CBD help you sleep?

Sleep affects almost every system and tissue in the body: the heart, the brain, metabolism, immune function, mood and more. While the biological purpose of sleep still remains a mystery, it is a vital process that is essential for life. In fact, scientists have never found a truly sleepless creature.

Despite the importance of good sleep, up to 70 million people in the United States have sleep issues that negatively impact their general well-being. Many people turn to cannabis and CBD to naturally improve their sleep.

What does it look like to use cannabis or CBD to sleep better?

People are using cannabis in myriad ways to address sleep. They could be a young woman plagued with years of poor sleep who finds that a few puffs of cannabis flower vapor help her fall asleep faster. Or a person who discovers that cannabis and CBD dramatically improves the quality and quantity of his sleep. Or a septuagenarian who buccally ingests THC after dinner to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm as she ages. Can cannabis or CBD help you improve your sleep? Jointly can help you find out, but first let’s review what is known about using cannabis and CBD for sleep.

Cannabis as a sleep aid

Cannabis has a long history of being used as a sleep aid dating back to at least 1000 B.C.E. In the 1920s, medical encyclopedias described cannabis as a sedative and a hypnotic. A sedative is a drug that acts as a central nervous system depressant, lowering anxiety and stress. A hypnotic is a drug that directly induces sleep.

With such a long history as a natural sleep aid, it is unsurprising that many people today still use cannabis to improve their sleep. According to a 2019 survey of 1000 adult users at a cannabis dispensary in Colorado, 74% reported taking cannabis to promote sleep. Of that group, 84% found cannabis “very or extremely helpful” in helping them sleep, and most people reported that they stopped or significantly reduced their sleeping pill use.

What does the science say about sleep and cannabis?

According to Dr. Ethan Russo, a cannabis doctor and one of the world’s leading cannabis researchers, “Almost every clinical study that’s looked at cannabis-based medicines has shown an improvement in sleep.” To say otherwise, he said, is “to be staring in a deep hole — a deep hole of ignorance.”

Many people wonder what is the best strain for sleep? Particularly, what is the best Indica strain - historically believed to induce a relaxed state - for sleep? But research suggests that “marijuana strain names often do not reflect a meaningful genetic identity.”

Sleep has been traditionally described in two parts: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM). Humans dream during REM sleep. NREM is divided into three stages, progressing from light sleep to deep sleep—designated as slow-wave sleep (SWS). SWS is the stage at which your body repairs itself and regrows tissue, whereas REM sleep has been associated with cognitive performance and learning. All stages of sleep seem to be important.

Federal prohibition of cannabis has precluded the ability to conduct efficacy trials, so for now there is not enough research into cannabis and sleep to state any firm conclusions. Available data is often exploratory, small in scale, or conducted in other countries. For example, a widely cited study from 2008 indicates that cannabis decreases REM sleep and increases SWS sleep.

However, these findings have not been consistently replicated. A literature review published by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Center in Australia concluded the opposite: “the acute effects of cannabis use on sleep appear to be a disruption to the sleep cycle reflecting a reduction in time spent in slow wave sleep and an increase in time spent in rapid eye movement sleep.”

According to Joseph W. Anderson, a sleep specialist and polysomnographic technologist, when asked  how cannabis affects sleep, suggested we are combining two great unknowns: “an insufficiently studied drug and a biological enigma.” While we cannot state definitively how cannabis affects sleep architecture, it is widely reported that cannabis helps many people fall asleep.

How does cannabis affect sleep?

Studies have shown that cannabis alters the sleep-wake cycle, increases the production of melatonin, and can “inhibit the arousal system by activating CB1 receptors in the basal forebrain and other wake promoting centers.” THC may decrease sleep latency—the time it takes you to fall asleep. But chronic use has been associated with impaired sleep quality over the long term.

Endocannabinoid system and sleep

Sleep is a critically important biological function that involves an organism becoming much less responsive to stimuli. The natural sleep-wake cycle is determined by the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour biological clock that allows organisms to perceive daily environmental cues and respond to them. The circadian rhythm has been observed in plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria.

While the circadian rhythm is self-sustained and maintained by endogenous processes, it is also entrained by cues called zeitgebers—literally, “time giver” in German. The most important zeitgeber is the cycle of light and dark, but temperature, melatonin and various other stimuli can also entrain the circadian rhythm.

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is the “internal clock” that serves as the endogenous control center for circadian rhythms. Lesions to the SCN eliminate a range of circadian behaviors in mammals, including sleep-wake cycles. The SCN combines zeitgebers like light or feeding with internal messengers like melatonin to maintain consistent circadian rhythms and “to entrain to the 24-hour day.”

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a role in circadian rhythms and regulating the sleep-wake cycle. While scientists have not teased out the exact role of the ECS in sleep, it seems to involve the CB1 receptor. THC exerts its psychoactive effects through binding to the CB1 receptor. CB1 receptors are found in the SCN, which encouraged scientists to study the interaction between CB1 receptors, light and the SCN.

They determined that cannabinoids “do alter the ability of the SCN to entrain to environmental light cues, but mainly through modulating GABAergic tone.” Many sleep-promoting drugs and OTC herbals target the GABA receptor. GABA is “the main inhibitory neurotransmitter” of the central nervous system and plays an important role in sleep. Research indicates that “GABAergic drugs have overlapping effects with cannabis,” although there is not enough research to state firm conclusions about the role of GABA in cannabinoid effects.

Cannabis Balances the Circadian Rhythm

Fascinatingly, scientists have suggested that cannabis may act as a zeitgeber.

As a zeitgeber, cannabis entrains “biological rhythms to facilitate daily sleep periods, and thus may serve as a chronobiotic therapeutic compound for individuals with disrupted circadian function.” Earlier, we noted that animals with damage to the SCN lose a range of circadian behaviors.

However, chronically administering drugs and food in a consistent schedule has been shown to restore circadian rhythmicity in animals with ablated SCN.

A 2015 study examined the relationship between cannabis use and circadian rhythms in humans. In the study, chronic marijuana users wore actigraphy watches (devices that track movement to determine sleep) over a 21-day period. Data from the study depicted cannabis users as “significantly more entrained to the traditional 24-hour Cosiner model than age-matched, non-using controls.” However, marijuana users did display increased levels of sleep disturbances when compared to non-users.

According to Dr. Matt Roman, a medical marijuana doctor, “Marijuana is an effective sleep aid because it restores a person’s natural sleep cycle, which so often falls out of sync with our schedules in today’s modern lifestyle.”

Elderly adults are known to develop disrupted circadian rhythms with age, so cannabis offers a way to entrain the circadian rhythm. Night shift workers or other populations with disrupted circadian rhythms could also potentially benefit from using cannabis as a zeitgeber.

CBD for Sleep

While CBD is commonly thought of as a sleep-aid, the available data suggests that “CBD seems unlikely to directly influence sleep in healthy humans.” Animal studies suggest the CBD may even be wake-promoting and could be used to treat excessive daytime sleepiness. 

Several studies have examined how CBD affects subjective measures of sleep in humans.A 3-month study conducted on an outpatient psychiatric population indicated that “sleep scores displayed no sustained improvements.” 

A 2020 controlled clinical study assessed the acute pharmacodynamics (effect of a drug) of 100mg of CBD or CBD-dominant cannabis.They found that vapor inhalation of CBD-dominant cannabis increased subjective sleepiness. CBD alone did not have these same effects. The researchers hypothesize that effects of the CBD-dominant cannabis were due to trace amounts of THC. They state, “it is still unclear whether acute administration of this relatively low dose of THC alone is enough to produce sleepiness, or whether it has synergistic effects with CBD and other phytocannabinoids in the strain of CBD-dominant cannabis used in this study.”

Despite the available evidence, many people swear that CBD oil is the secret to better sleep, so more research is needed before the effects of CBD on sleep can be definitively stated.

CBN for sleep

Has a friend ever told you that the joint they had in a drawer from last summer made them sleepy? This may be due to the THC breaking down into cannabinol (CBN), a cannabinoid identified to help with sleep. Cannabinol - a bi-product of oxidized THC - was one of the first cannabinoids identified and isolated from cannabis. Several recent small studies have demonstrated efficacy of CBN alone and in combination with THC and CBD to improve sleep. 

Can cannabis improve your sleep?

Cannabis seems to have varying effects on sleep architecture, and it may act as a zeitgeber, helping one maintain a regular circadian rhythm. In situations where sleep is disturbed due to daily stress or minor aches and pains from daily life, cannabis could alleviate these symptoms and improve sleep. With many different cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, and CBN identified as potential options to improve measures of sleep, both patients and consumers have options with regard to source, dose, and cannabinoid combinations.

But consistent, long term use seems to be associated with sleep disturbances. Jointly can help you dial in how you consume cannabis and CBD so that you can sleep better, naturally.

Use Jointly to sleep better with cannabis and CBD

Jointly is cannabis wellness platform that helps you achieve your wellness goals with cannabis and CBD. Jointly allows you to track and record your CBD and cannabis consumption, including the dose, time of use, cannabinoid profile and various other factors that can influence your experience.

As you track your cannabis consumption on Jointly, you will learn about the 15 factors that can impact your cannabis experience and how to eliminate side effects. Perhaps you will discover that you sleep best when you vaporize whole flower cannabis after you have worked out and with some food in your stomach.

Find top-rated products for your goals 

Jointly is a cannabis discovery app that makes it easy to find and match with the best cannabis and CBD products for your goals. Your matches are calculated from the real product ratings and experiences of hundreds of thousands of people using the Jointly app.

If you're ready to discover new products and reach your goals, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or explore your matches on the Jointly website.   

Are you curious about Jointly?

Whether you want to improve sleep, relieve daily stress, or just relax and refresh, Jointly can help you reach your goals with cannabis.  

With Jointly, match with top-rated products, and build lists of your favorites to save, share, and bring to your local dispensary to help guide your shopping experience.  

Jointly also helps you track your cannabis experiences through reflections that help you understand what’s working, and what’s not. In fact, the quality of your diet, how much you slept, who you’re with, and the time of day are just some of the factors that can impact your experiences.  

So if you're ready to enjoy your perfect cannabis experience, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or explore your matches on the Jointly website. Discovery awaits.