An ATTN news report examined the impact of marijuana use on sleep.
Nearly 40 years ago, a researcher who went by I Feinberg wrote in the journal Clinical Pharmacology Therapy that “the effect on sleep of THC [the main psychoactive component of marijuana] administration closely resembles those induced by lithium.” This was well before cannabis research really took off, and it serves as one of the first research-backed examples of how marijuana use impacted your nightly rest cycle.
There is a distinct difference between the way that cannabis affects people who experience normal sleep and those with sleep disorders such as insomnia. For people who don’t usually have trouble falling asleep, marijuana will still probably speed up the process, and it has also been shown to increase overall sleep. One study also determined that THC and CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, were associated with more time spent sleeping.
Be warned, however: Higher doses of THC before bed have also been known to produce a “hangover” effect. That is not to say that smoking too much pot will give you a throbbing headache or nausea the morning after a heavy session; it is not the same hangover attributed to overindulgence in alcohol but rather a feeling of sluggishness, a mental fog that gradually lifts throughout the early hours of the day.
