Marijuana's Affect on Sleep?

Some users of cannabis claim that smoking marijuana helps them sleep–70% of users, in fact. This ratio decreases to 50% in long-term users (10 years or more of continuous use).

Research is still being conducted to arrive at more conclusive results on its effectiveness in helping people with sleeping issues, although as with most things whether it does help and to what degree likely varies considerably from person to person and with the amount used and tolerance levels.

Some studies have shown that synthetic forms of THC (the neurochemically active agent in cannabis) not only help users with sleep apnea, but also help reduce the occurrence of PTSD-related nightmares.

One study found that, “Short-term cannabis use appears to increase the time you spend in deep sleep, the stage that helps you wake up feeling refreshed.” Noting that, on the other hand, “THC decreases the amount of time you spend in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep”--the sleep where you tend to dream more vividly.

It also seems that taking cannabis repeatedly for a while and then suddenly stopping can cause a very intense onslaught of extremely vivid dreams for a short period of time.

This may be because the imaginative function that is being exercised in dreams is, as it were, chemically and energetically dried up from significant cannabis use, and therefore does not find sufficient starting power to produce memorable dreams.

However, once the mind ceases exposure to this imaginative fatigue of sorts due to a break in cannabis intake, a dam breaks loose of backed-up dream-inducing chemicals, combined with the hitherto unexpressed physical energy normally expunged in dreaming life otherwise.