Can marijuana help you sleep? Here’s what experts say.

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From chamomile and lavender to hops, people have long experimented with natural products to get better sleep. Now that marijuana is legal in many states for medical or recreational use, it may mean that more people are using it for this purpose. Some 18 percent of people ages 19 to 30 in the United States say they use marijuana to sleep, a recent study showed.

There are some components of the cannabis plant “that appear to be helpful for some people with regard to sleep,” said Staci Gruber, the director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery Program at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Cannabis contains dozens of compounds such as cannabidiol (CBD), which does not cause the “high” typically associated with marijuana, and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which does have mood- and mind-altering effects. Products that consist primarily of CBD, along with low doses of THC, may help some people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, Gruber said.

Research on cannabis and sleep remains somewhat inconclusive, partly because strains, potency, frequency and length of use, as well as the underlying health of participants, have varied from study to study, making it difficult to draw clear conclusions. Some studies have suggested that cannabis promotes better sleep in people with anxiety issues or chronic pain, for instance. But it could be that participants slept better because it eased their symptoms, some experts said.

Researchers have started to focus on cannabis use for sleep issues only more recently.

Participants with sleep troubles who used CBD slept better than those given a placebo, according to a 2024 randomized clinical trial.

The addition of cannabinol (CBN) and cannabichromene (CBC) – two other THC-free compounds — however, did not have notable effects, though CBN has shown promise as a sleep aid in other research.

A small trial found that participants who placed CBD oil under their tongue about an hour before bed had better sleep after two weeks of use, but results were similar to those on the placebo.

Adding low doses of THC to CBD may help. In a 2021 trial, participants who received a cannabinoid extract formulation containing CBD, CBN and THC had an improvement in insomnia symptoms, reducing scores on the Insomnia Severity Index by an average of 5 points compared with the placebo.

(All four of these clinical trials received funding from cannabis companies.)

Although small amounts of THC may help some people feel drowsy, higher amounts of THC, which are often found in products used for recreational purposes, can cause alertness, anxiety and sleep disruption, Gruber said.

Additionally, use of higher amounts of THC over the course of weeks or months may start to interfere with sleep, potentially as the brain starts habituating to the sedating effects, said Deirdre Conroy, the clinical director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at Michigan Medicine.

“You start to see a little bit longer time to fall asleep, the waking start to return and the sleep stages changing in distribution the more someone uses and the more regular the use,” she said.

The delivery system matters as well, experts said. Although cannabis that is smoked or vaped may act within minutes and help some people fall asleep faster, it wears off sooner and may not help them stay asleep. Also, smoking or vaping may have adverse consequences for the lungs.

Oils and solutions placed under the tongue are absorbed into the salivary mucosa in the mouth and hit the bloodstream quickly.

Capsules, as well as beverages and edibles including gummies, take longer to lead to an effect because they must be digested and metabolized by the liver, but the effects last longer.

Adolescents; people who are pregnant or breastfeeding; and those with a history of psychosis or severe psychiatric illness, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, or untreated sleep apnea should avoid cannabis or use it only under the guidance of a health care provider, said Robert Welch, the director of the National Center for Cannabis Research and Education and a research associate professor in the Research Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Mississippi. (The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists also recommends that people who are pregnant or breastfeeding avoid cannabis.)

Certain cannabinoids may also interact negatively with some medications, particularly some selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), antianxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines, and sleep aids, he said.

Given increased access and decreased stigma, Gruber believes more people will be turning toward alternative therapeutic strategies such as cannabis and cannabinoids to try to ease sleep issues.

“It’s incredibly important for people to be as well-informed and educated as they can be to make the best decisions possible,” she said. “It isn’t all about THC. There are ways that you can leverage your own endocannabinoid system using some of these nonintoxicating cannabinoids to get some, if not a lot of benefit, at least for some people.”

If you are considering cannabis to help with sleep, first speak with your health care provider to make sure you don’t have certain preexisting conditions or take medications that could have negative interactions. Also, new research suggests that, for genetic reasons, some people are at greater risk of developing a cannabis use disorder than others.

Consider these other tips from experts:

• Shop safe. Get a certificate of analysis – a report from a third-party laboratory on quality and safety – for any product that you are considering using, Gruber said. “It doesn’t matter what the label says. It matters what the lab report says is in the product, and, generally, you can find those at the more established points of sale,” she said.
• Start low and go slow. Start with CBD (10 to 15 mg) an hour or two before going to bed, and assuming you can tolerate it and are still having sleep issues, consider adding a low dose of THC (1 to 2.5 mg), Welch said. Reassess in two to four weeks, and if you don’t see a meaningful improvement or if you develop side effects such as next-day drowsiness, dizziness, or impaired attention and reaction time, discontinue use, he said.
• Select a well-studied delivery method. Oil, under-the-tongue solutions and capsules are preferable, Welch said.

And keep in mind that products containing even small amounts of THC and potentially other cannabis compounds may be detected on a drug test, though fewer employers are testing for cannabis.

CBD-dominant products containing small amounts of THC may help some people with sleep, but the cannabinoid mixture, dose, delivery system and individual factors are important.