Can Cannabis Cure Insomnia?
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]I[/dropcap]n what is being reported as a world-first study, researchers at The University of Western Australia (UWA) will analyze sleeping patterns to determine if medical cannabis is effective for insomnia in adults.
Twenty-four adults between the ages of 25 and 70 who complained about insomnia for at least three months have been selected for the study. Participants will be administered oil containing cannabis for two weeks, stop for seven days, then consume oil without cannabis for another two weeks.
“If it is as safe as people hope, if it works as well as people hope, then it could be a game changer, not just for insomnia, but for a bunch of health problems,” UWA study lead Professor Peter Eastwood told 9NEWS. “The problem with those is they can be addictive and they can have side effects—they work but you do not want to be using those things long term.”
The cannabinoid extract will be provided by Australia-based Zelda Therapeutics. Participants will take drops of oil underneath their tongues, one hour before they go to bed. They won’t know whether they are taking oil infused with cannabis, or plain oil as a placebo.
The study will be completed with help from the UWA Centre for Sleep Science. The quality of sleep will be measured by the amount of movement measured by wrist movements well as three overnight sleeps in the sleep center.
Eastwood also explained that cannabis could be better than benzodiazepines or hypnotics that frequently cause unpleasant side effects. Conventional sleep medication can cause dependence or an overdose, or be abused recreationally. The recreational Xanax trend was recently popularized, but hit a wall after rapper Lil’ Peep overdosed and died, prompting outcries from other fellow rappers.
Looking to the future, cannabis-based sleeping drugs simply aren’t strong enough to stop breathing like benzodiazepines or other sedatives. People suffering from chronic insomnia wouldn’t have to depend on powerful sedatives.
