Smoking pot can lead to poor sleep quality, a new research shows.
Researchers found that marijuana abuse was linked to increased chances of difficulty in falling asleep, struggling to maintain sleep, experiencing non-restorative sleep and feeling daytime sleepiness.
The effect was strongly seen in people who began smoking weed before the age of 15. They were nearly twice more likely to have severe problems falling asleep, experiencing non-restorative sleep and feeling overly sleepy during the day.
"Current and past marijuana users are more likely to experience sleep problems," said lead author Jilesh Chheda, research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "The most surprising finding was that there was a strong relationship with age of first use, no matter how often people were currently using marijuana. People who started using early were more likely to have sleep problems as an adult," he said in a news release.
The study involved adults ranging in age from 20-59 years who responded to the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A history of drug use was reported by 1,811 participants. Cannabis use was assessed as any history of use, age at first use and number of times used in the past month. Sleep-related problems were considered severe if they occurred at least 15 days per month.
The findings show that weed abuse in the early years of adolescence might pose a higher risk for subsequent insomnia symptoms.
"Marijuana use is common, with about half of adults having reported using it at some point in their life," said Chheda. "As it becomes legal in many states, it will be important to understand the impact of marijuana use on public health, as its impact on sleep in the 'real world' is not well known."
The research abstract was published in the journal 'Sleep' and will be presented Wednesday, June 4, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at SLEEP 2014, the 28th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.
