We had such high hopes.
Many of us struggle to get enough sleep every night, so we end up reaching for sleep aids like melatonin and maybe something a bit stronger.
Over 23 million American adults use cannabis products to help them snooze. Think gummies, tinctures, drinks or a good ol’ toke.
Now, a landmark 35-year study from Northwestern Medicine has found a clear answer on whether these products are actually delivering better ZZZs.
Both long-term use — over years — and recent use of cannabis were linked with poorer sleep quality, even when users didn’t feel like their sleep quality was worse.
“This study challenges the common belief that cannabis helps people sleep better,” said author Dr. Thanh-Huyen T. Vu.
What the research says
Participants started this study in 1985 and ’86, when they were 18 to 30 years old. They were followed for 35 years, until 2022, and had nine follow-up exams during that span.
Researchers took two measures of recreational cannabis use. They estimated consumption over the study’s length in years — so 365 days of use, not necessarily consecutively, would be one “cannabis year.” They also measured whether people used it within the last 30 days or were former or never-users.
Then, they had participants wear a wrist-mounted sleep tracker for seven days and had them keep sleep logs for the week.
Here’s what they found. Researchers say that each additional cannabis year of use was associated with 10% higher odds of lower sleep percentage or spending less than 85% of the sleep period actually sleeping.
Each additional cannabis year was also associated with 4% higher odds of fragmented sleep and 21% higher odds of more time spent awake after falling asleep.
Recent use of cannabis products also hurt sleep. Those who had used cannabis in the last 30 days had higher odds of low sleep percentage and fragmented sleep.
Plus, recent users had 3.23 times the odds of spending an unusually long time awake after initially falling asleep compared with those who never used cannabis. They also had 4.60 times the odds of sleeping longer than optimal compared with never-users.
The surprising findings might have been missed without objective sleep measurements. When participants rated their own sleep quality, cannabis use wasn’t associated with better or worse sleep.
“Our data do not support the belief that cannabis is helpful as a sleep aid,” said author Mercedes R. Carnethon. “As cannabis becomes increasingly available and accepted, it’s important to better understand its long-term associations with health behaviors such as sleep.”
Researchers did not record how participants took the drug, how potent it was and how close to bed they took it, which the authors recognize was a limitation of their findings, published in October in JAMA Network Open.
What to do for better sleep instead
If you want to improve your sleep without aids like cannabis, start with good habits early in the morning.
Here are some tips that Dr. Samir Fahmy, director of the Sleep Disorder Center at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, told The Post.
- Get up at the same time every day, including weekends. Get natural light within 30 to 60 minutes of waking up.
- Drink your coffee by early afternoon and get your workout in before 7 p.m.
- Before bed, start putting together a 30- to 60-minute routine that includes dimming lights, getting off screens and engaging in low-stimulation activities like reading or stretching.
