Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Dec;26(12):712-727.
doi: 10.1007/s11920-024-01564-7. Epub 2024 Nov 29.

Using Cannabis and CBD to Sleep: An Updated Review

Isobel Lavender #  1   2 , Grace Garden #  1   3   4   5   6 , Ronald R Grunstein  1   3   4   5   6 , Brendon J Yee  1   3   5   6 , Camilla M Hoyos  7   8
Affiliations
Review

Using Cannabis and CBD to Sleep: An Updated Review

Isobel Lavender et al. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2024 Dec.

Erratum in

Abstract

Purpose of review: Cannabis sativa and constituent cannabinoids are in widespread use for the treatment of sleep disorders where many patients desire pharmacotherapy. Previous reviews highlight a lack of high-quality evidence to support the efficacy and long-term safety of cannabinoids in various conditions. We aim to provide an update of recent original research evaluating cannabinoid-based therapeutics in sleep disorders.

Recent findings: We identified twenty-one recent studies of cannabinoids for insomnia, subjective sleep impairment, obstructive sleep apnoea, rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, and restless legs syndrome. We note trends towards the use of minor cannabinoids, studies using decentralised approaches and increased utilisation of objective measures in clinical trials. The evidence-base does not match widespread use of cannabinoids for the treatment of sleep disorders. There is a growing need for adequately funded well-designed clinical trials with longer treatment durations and decent sample sizes to inform both the clinician and patient.

Keywords: Cannabidiol; Cannabinol; Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinold; Insomnia disorder; Sleep-disordered breathing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Financial Disclosures: CMH is funded by a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship. RRG (1197439) is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council-Australian (NHMRC) Investigator Grant. IL was supported by a Barry and Joy Lambert Postgraduate Research Scholarship between 2021–2023. Competing Interest: RRG has received discounted investigational products from Neurim Pharmaceuticals and received investigational product and matched placebo from Teva Pharmaceutical in unrelated clinical trials. He has received funding for lectures for Pfizer, Teva, Jazz and Eisai in the past 3 years. RRG is a consultant for Eli Lilly. The other authors have no competing interests to disclose. The Woolcock Institute Sleep and Chronobiology Research Group has received research support from Avadel, Nyxoah, Idorsa, ResMed, BOD Australia, and Philips.

References

    1. Du M, Liu M, Wang Y, Qin C, Liu J. Global burden of sleep disturbances among older adults and the disparities by geographical regions and pandemic periods. SSM - Population Health. 2024;25:101588. - PubMed - DOI
    1. Streatfeild J, Smith J, Mansfield D, Pezzullo L, Hillman D. The social and economic cost of sleep disorders. Sleep. 2021;44(11).
    1. Kesner AJ, Lovinger DM. Cannabinoids, Endocannabinoids and Sleep. Front Mol Neurosci. 2020;13:125. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Kaul M, Zee PC, Sahni AS. Effects of Cannabinoids on Sleep and their Therapeutic Potential for Sleep Disorders. Neurotherapeutics. 2021.
    1. Murillo-Rodriguez E. The role of the CB1 receptor in the regulation of sleep. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2008;32(6):1420–7. - PubMed - DOI

LinkOut - more resources