THC, CBD & Sleep (Patreon)

Some data from the past 8 months for the nerds.

• I get 25% more REM sleep when I vape cannabis
• I get 20% more DEEP sleep when I vape cannabis

This makes me an outlier (or much of the “science” is off) –– “everyone knows” cannabis reduced REM sleep 🤷‍♂️.

I have been tracking my sleep now for 8 months with Oura ring. Super insightful.

I took a 9 month break for cannabis between early 2021 and 2022, meaning I have 5 months of data without any cannabis, and the most recent 3 months with cannabis* which I use regularly to improve my sleep and life.

Here’s my REM data:

• Avg REM sleep without cannabis: 1h 48m
• Avg REM sleep with cannabis: 2h 15m

Oura ring also gives a “sleep score” out of 100.

• Avg sleep score without cannabis: 79.6
• Avg sleep score with cannabis: 85.3

The more data the better but this is a strong signal that my sleep is much improved when I use cannabis (which I already knew).

Thought I would share this info especially as my personal experience contradicts the general belief that cannabis meaningfully reduces REM sleep. In my case it increased REM and Deep Sleep, decreased my sleep latency (time to fall asleep), decreased the number of times I wake up and decreased tossing and turning and I have the data to prove it now!

THAT SAID, cannabis is not a free lunch but as a lifelong insomniac, and someone who finds it VERY useful for creative thinking & many other things, the small price I pay to take control of my sleep and enhance my life is well worth it.

* I began using a bed cooler around 6 weeks ago and this has made a marginal difference but not enough to meaningfully impact the monthly sleep data and likewise, I did take CBD oil on 3 occasions late 2022 which made a big positive impact on sleep on those 3 nights but again, it wasn’t enough to meaningfully impact the monthly data. Also, no alcohol was consumed during the data period.

Anyone else use cannabis or extracts to help with sleep, creativity, life etc? I have many friends who SWEAR by CBD oil to help with anxiety too.

I love you all,
Steven