For some people, the answer is yes. Medicinal marijuana can help with sleep. Take the case of Adam Farrah as interviewed on the Phoenix Helix podcast (episode 33) where he says that medicinal marijuana was able to help him sleep and was able to wean off the very addictive Xanax prescription.
Marijuana can help with pain management for those people with chronic pains that prevent good sleep.
BrainBlogger.com writes …
“According to several studies, marijuana has been found to both induce sleep and increase the duration of Stage 4 sleep. These effects improve the overall quality of sleep in an individual.”
However, it also writes that …
“Some other studies have found that heavy use of marijuana has been associated with disturbed sleep.”
Psychology Today writes …
“Cannabis has often been classified as a hallucinogen and regarded as a minor psychedelic … Some people do have withdrawal symptoms when stopping prolonged and heavy use of cannabis and this can adversely affect sleep.”
There are cannabinoids receptors found in the central nervous system as well as in the immune system.
If you take too much marijuana, it can produce anxiety and paranoia. This level of “too much” is very individualized. This is more important if one is taking a marijuana in the form of a food product because the effects can not be detected until two hours of eating it and if that was too much there is nothing you can do but wait it out. Whereas if you smoke it, you can stop as soon as you detect symptoms of excess.
The ColoradoPotGuide writes that Marijuana decrease the REM (dreaming) state and increase the deep stage 3 & 4 stage. And mentioned that some small study suggests that it might help with sleep apnea. It does writes that …
“Many heavy marijuana users report difficulty sleeping once they’ve ceased use. These problems include difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep and the phenomenon known as REM rebound or very vivid (often anxiety-inducing) dreams.”