Many insomniacs swear by cannabis as a way to help them sleep – while many scientific studies have found that THC actually exacerbates sleep problems.
A new study published last week in Addiction might explain why.
Researchers from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine found that for young adults with pre-existing depression or anxiety, cannabis improved sleep. For those without pre-existing mental health conditions, it created more sleep problems.
“There’s a common perception that cannabis can improve sleep, but the science on cannabis’s effects on sleep is mixed, and part of the reason could be because individual factors like mental health play a role in how cannabis use affects sleep,” says Claire Walsh, a PhD student in behavioral health at USC and lead author of the study.
Walsh and her team used data from USC’s Happiness and Health Study,which surveyed 3,300 public high school students in the Los Angeles area on their substance use, social and emotional health, as well as other health factors, between 2013 and 2023.
The study compared people who use cannabis 20 or more days each month with those who have never tried it, and determined how cannabis affects sleep problems using a 16-point scoring system. Walsh says that for participants who were anxious or depressed, her team saw “an average decrease in sleep problems of -1.18 points over six months”, and for participants without anxiety or depression, they saw “an average increase in sleep problems of 1.66 points over six months” compared with those who didn’t use cannabis.
Read the full article at The Guardian
