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Recent cannabis use and nightly sleep duration in adults: a population analysis of the NHANES from 2005 to 2018
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  1. Calvin Diep1,
  2. Chenchen Tian1,
  3. Kathak Vachhani2,
  4. Christine Won3,
  5. Duminda N Wijeysundera1,4,
  6. Hance Clarke1,5,
  7. Mandeep Singh1,5 and
  8. Karim S Ladha1,4
  1. 1 Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  2. 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  3. 3 Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  4. 4 Department of Anesthesia, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  5. 5 Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Karim S Ladha, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada; karim.ladha{at}mail.utoronto.ca

Abstract

Background While popularly consumed for its perceived benefits as a sleeping aid, the impact of cannabis on sleep-wake regulation in clinical studies is inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between cannabis use and nightly sleep duration in a nationally representative dataset.

Methods A cross-sectional analysis of adults was undertaken using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2005 to 2018. Respondents were dichotomized as recent users or non-users if they had used or not used cannabis in the past 30 days, respectively. The primary outcome was nightly sleep duration, categorized as short (<6 hours), optimal (6–9 hours), and long (>9 hours). Multinomial logistic regression was used to adjust for sociodemographic and health-related covariates, and survey sample weights were used in modeling.

Results From a sample representing approximately 146 million adults in the USA, 14.5% reported recent cannabis use. In an adjusted analysis, recent users were more likely than non-users to report both short sleep (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.59, p<0.001) and long sleep (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.96, p<0.001). Heavy users (≥20 of the past 30 days) were even more likely to be at the extremes of nightly sleep duration.

Discussion Recent cannabis use was associated with the extremes of nightly sleep duration in a nationally representative sample of adults, with suggestions of a dose–response relationship. Our findings highlight the need to further characterize the sleep health of regular cannabis users in the population.

  • analgesia
  • epidemiology
  • pharmacology
  • treatment outcome
  • outcomes

Data availability statement

Data are available in a public, open access repository. Data are available on reasonable request. All data for this study and tutorials to access the data are publicly available at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2021-103161

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available in a public, open access repository. Data are available on reasonable request. All data for this study and tutorials to access the data are publicly available at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @calvdiep, @chenchentian, @kathak_v, @wonchristine, @drhaclarke, @mndpsingh7, @drladha

    • MS and KSL contributed equally.

    • Contributors CD, MS, and KSL conceived the study. CD conducted data retrieval, coding, and analysis. CD, CT, KV, CW, DNW, HC, MS, and KSL all contributed to drafting and preparation of the manuscript. KSL acts as a guarantor for all activities of this study.

    • Funding DNW, HC, MS, and KSL are supported in part by Merit Awards from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada). DNW is supported in part by a Endowed Chair in Translational Anesthesiology Research at St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto, Canada) and the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada). MS is supported by a Career Scientist Award from the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society (Toronto, Canada).

    • Competing interests HC and KSL are co-principal investigators for an observational study of medical cannabis use funded by Shoppers Drug Mart.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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