Recreational cannabis use is associated with poorer sleep outcomes in young adult African Americans

Introduction: The present study sought to determine the relationship between self-reported cannabis use dosage in grams per day with (1) objective sleep outcomes: sleep efficiency (SE), sleep onset latency SOL and number of night-time awakenings (NWAK) (2) if objective and subjective sleep measures, using the PSQI, differed between cannabis users and non-cannabis users. Methods: Our sample included 178 participants, aged 18-35 years. We collected demographic information, cannabis use in dosage per day and frequency of use, depressive symptoms through the CESD, and subjective sleep reports using the PSQI. After the survey assessment, we monitored sleep using the Phillips Actiwatch Spectrum watch for a minimum of 5 nights. Results: The amount of cannabis consumed per day was inversely related to SOL and SE, and positively related to NWAK. After controlling for covariates, regression models were statistically significant for predicting SOL (beta =-0.369, p <.001), SE (beta =-0.232, p <.05) and NWAK, (beta =-0.318, p <.001), indicating cannabis dosage per day is the strongest predictor for the sleep parameters. Subjective sleep measures did not differ from cannabis users versus non-cannabis users. Conclusion: Recreational cannabis use is beneficial for SOL but may be detrimental to SE as those who reported increased cannabis use also had more NWAK. Cannabis may be useful for sleep onset, results suggest that increased use does not aid in sleep maintenance.