A new study challenges the widespread belief that cannabis helps people with insomnia get more rest. Researchers from Macquarie University and the University of Sydney found that a single oral dose of a medicinal cannabis product actually reduced total sleep time and REM sleep in adults diagnosed with insomnia.

The pilot study involved 20 participants, most of them women, who spent two nights in a sleep lab—one after taking a placebo and another after consuming a precise dose of cannabis oil (10 mg THC and 200 mg CBD). Using high-density EEG monitoring, the researchers discovered that the cannabinoid treatment decreased total sleep time by about 24.5 minutes and REM sleep by nearly 34 minutes. Despite these changes, participants did not report feeling less rested, and their next-day alertness and driving performance remained unaffected.

The authors caution that their findings are based on a small sample and a single dose, emphasizing the urgent need for larger, long-term studies to understand the true effects of medicinal cannabis on sleep. For more details, see the original article on MSN.