Does marijuana actually help with sleep problems? | Psychiatry | Michigan Medicine | University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Millions of Americans regularly use marijuana, but one of the reasons why may surprise you. Studies find around half are using the drug to help them sleep, but is that an effective strategy? Evidence of the drug’s effectiveness for sleep is actually mixed. While marijuana may have benefits in the short term, in the long run, experts believe it could actually make your sleep worse. “When we look at the effects of marijuana on sleep, we tend to see that in the short term, it does help people fall asleep and improves the sleep quality in the first part of the night,” said Dr. Deirdre Conroy, a sleep psychologist with University of Michigan Health (link is external) . “In the second part of the night, you can have more awakenings and fragmented sleep.” Using marijuana routinely to get to sleep may have a negative impact. “In the long term, some of the improvements that people experience with marijuana can wane and insomnia can return with more frequent use and a

ANN ARBOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Millions of Americans regularly use marijuana, but one of the reasons why may surprise you. Studies find around half are using the drug to help them sleep, but is that an effective strategy? Evidence of the drug’s effectiveness for sleep is actually mixed. While marijuana may have benefits in the short term, in the long run, experts believe it could actually make your sleep worse. “When we look at the effects of marijuana on sleep, we tend to see that in the short term, it does help people fall asleep and improves the sleep quality in the first part of the night,” s