Heavy Marijuana Users Experience Sleep Disturbance – Sleep Disorder and Apnea
To determine if recently abstinent, heavy marijuana (MJ) users show differences in polysomnographic (PSG) measures compared with a drug-free control group.A group of carefully selected heavy heavy marijuana users were chosen for study inclusion and matched to a drug-free control group. Questionnaire data were collected prior to cessation of MJ use. PSG studies were conducted during 2 consecutive nights after discontinuation of heavy marijuana use in our core sleep laboratory.
The setting of sleep disturbance and Marijuana use was Baltimore Maryland, General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) core sleep lab.
Participants were the 17 heavy MJ users discontinuing heavy marijuana use and 14 drugfree controls. Men and women were studied, 18 to 30 years. The MJ users reported no other drug use and alcohol use was negligible in both groups. Urine was positive for metabolites of cannabis only.
The results demonstrated that the MJ users showed differences in PSG measures (lower total sleep times, and less slow wave sleep than the control group) on both nights; they also showed worse sleep efficiency, longer sleep onset, and shorter REM latency than the control group on Night 2. More sleep continuity parameters were significantly worse for the MJ group than the control group on Night 2 versus Night 1, indicating that sleep in the MJ group was relatively worse on Night 2 compared to Night 1. The MJ group did not show improved sleep after an adaptation night as expected. Withdrawal symptoms, craving, and depression did not appear to influence these findings.
During discontinuation of heavy heavy marijuana use, PSG measures of sleep disturbance were detected in heavy marijuana users compared with a drugfree control group. While this preliminary study cannot identify the extent to which these group differences were present before abstinence, poor sleep quality either prior to or after MJ discontinuation could result in treatment failure for MJ users.
Further investigation is necessary to determine the association between the use and cessation of MJ and sleep disturbance.
It’s funny because this just came up in my life. I spent last week in Helena, Montana on business and, since I flew, I had no cannabis with me. I must admit that for three nights of abstinence, I had some pretty lousy sleep. I don’t know how much of that you can blame on a too-soft strange bed in a hotel room, though.
I’m interested in how much sleep disturbance might have been a factor that leads some people to using marijuana – that is, they take marijuana because they can’t sleep already. They also note they have no idea whether the marijuana users had sleep difficulties even when they were using marijuana.
I know for me, personally, before I ever used cannabis I always had lousy sleep. I’d have insomnia, I’d wake up frequently at night, I never felt like I had a good night’s rest. Since using cannabis, I go to bed and I’m asleep within minutes, sleep solidly through the night, and wake up rested. I often wonder how many Ambien, Lunesta, Rozerem, Halcion, Sonata, Restoril, Pamelor, and Desyrel users really just need a joint and a glass of milk.
