Cannabis Use Prior To Bedtime Is Associated With Improved Sleep According To Israeli Study

Consuming cannabis prior to bedtime is associated with improved sleep in patients with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress (PTS) according to data recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Researchers in Israel conducted a study involving a cohort of 14 subjects with combat-related traumatic stress. All of the study’s participants previously explored various conventional treatments with those treatments proving to be unsuccessful.

According to the researchers, none of the patients were cannabis consumers prior to enrolling in the study. Study participants consumed cannabis ‘in the evenings’ in an outpatient setting for a period of at least six-months as part of the study parameters.

Investigators reported: “After treatment with cannabis, total sleep score, subjective sleep quality, and sleep duration significantly improved. … Total PTSD symptom score and its subdomains (intrusiveness, avoidance, and alertness) showed [also] improvement.” By contrast, cannabis treatment was not associated with reducing patients’ frequency of nightmares. None of the patients reported any side-effects from cannabis, nor did any elect to cease using cannabis prior to the end of the study period.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published study examining long-term cannabis efficacy in chronic combat treatment-resistant PTSD patients,” authors concluded. “The study’s findings show an overall improvement in sleep quality and duration, as well as a decrease in PTSD symptoms. … Future research should clarify the long-term effects of cannabis on different groups of patients suffering from PTSD.”

Post-traumatic stress has been a qualifying condition for medical cannabis in Israel since 2014. Currently, it is estimated that roughly 10 percent of all Israelis authorized to access medical cannabis use it to treat various symptoms of PTS.

This latest study builds on prior studies, which have similarly reported improvements in sleep duration and in insomnia in patients with and without PTS. The enactment of adult-use cannabis legalization is also correlated with a decrease in the sale of over-the-counter sleep aid medications.