New study identifies the relationship between cannabis and sleep |

Taking a nap before bed is key to bedtime for many, but new research released this week suggests that it may not be.

The study, published on Monday in the BMJ, attempted to “determine the relationship between cannabis use and nocturnal sleep duration in a nationally representative data set,” which was a “cross-sectional analysis of adults using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey” by 2005 to 2018. “

According to CNN, the study analyzed “the use of marijuana to sleep in 21,729 adults between the ages of 20 and 59” and that the data was “considered representative of over 146 million Americans”.

“The respondents were dichotomized as recent users or non-users if they had or had not used cannabis in the last 30 days,” explained the authors of the study method. “The primary endpoint was the length of sleep at night, categorized as short (<6 hours), optimal (6–9 hours), and long (>9 hours). A multinomial logistic regression was used to fit socio-demographic and health-related covariates, and survey sample weights were used in the modeling. “

The study found that “Adults who consumed weed for 20 days or more in the past month were 64 percent more likely to sleep less than six hours a night and 76 percent more likely to sleep more than nine hours a night,” CNN reported, adding more moderately Cannabis use, defined as “weed use less than 20 days in the past month … did not cause brief sleep problems, but people were 47 percent more likely to sleep nine or more hours a night, the study also found.”

CNN said that “in addition to having problems with short and long sleep,” the study also found that people who “had consumed weed in the past 30 days were more likely and more likely to say they had trouble falling or staying asleep.” : “You talked to a doctor about sleep problems.”

“The problem with our study is that we can’t really say it’s causal, which means we can’t know for sure whether it was just people who had sleep disorders and therefore used the cannabis or the cannabis it caused. “Said Calvin Diep, an intern in the Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto who was the lead author of the study, as quoted by CNN.

“The problem is, there is a discrepancy between these anecdotal accounts of people reporting therapeutic benefits and the data behind them,” added Diep.

Cannabis is cited as a critical sleep aid for many who suffer from insomnia. A 2018 peer-reviewed study of 1,000 medical cannabis patients in Colorado found that of those who used weed to promote sleep, “84 percent found it very or extremely helpful, and most who used it over the counter (87 percent ) or taking prescription drugs ”. Sleeping pills (83 percent) said they would reduce or stop taking these drugs. “

Dr. Karim Ladha, employed anesthetist and clinician-scientist in the Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto, told CNN that the discrepancy was due to a variety of different factors.

“Much of the older data on cannabis is based on lower doses of THC than patients are using now, and there is very little research on CBD,” Ladha told CNN. “Studies tell us what is happening at the population level, but at the individual level this discussion is much more personal. Studies only give us the possibility that (marijuana) might affect your sleep, but it can help and we just don’t know until you try. “

“Patients are spending money, time and resources getting cannabis now to help them fall asleep,” added Ladha. “I think we as a medical community must do everything we can to ensure that our patients can make the best possible choices about their health.”