Cannabis and Dreams: How Cannabis Effects on Dreams?

Guest blog by Olivia Davis

For centuries, weed has been used as a herbal sleep aid. In fact, many people today use cannabis to help them get a good slumber. But anecdotal evidence of consumers reveals that cannabis consumption seems to affect their dreams.

Regular weed consumers claim that they don't have or remember their dreams when under the influence. But, when they're on a hiatus, or on a tolerance break (t-break), they seem to have strange, vivid, extreme, and lucid dreams. On the other hand, most newbies notice an immediate diminishing of their nocturnal dreaming.

So the questions are: can cannabis profoundly affect your dreams? Can it stop you from having nightly imaginings? Moreover, does abstinence or t-break make you have a barrage of bizarre dreamscapes? And should you be concerned?

Let's explore the possible connections between cannabis and dreams.

What Are Dreams?

Dreams are visuals, emotions, ideas, and sensations occurring involuntarily during our sleep. Dreams are usually harmless and often categorized as eccentric, sometimes fun, or pleasant. It only gets troublesome when our fields of dreams are habitually filled with nightmares and recollection of bad and traumatic memories.

Even today, experts from different fields still debate what the contents of our dreams really mean or the purpose of why we dream. Scientific research says that our nocturnal imagery can be attributed to neural activity. Nonetheless, researchers are yet to find out the specific reason why our brains conceive dreams.

Some experts suggest that the purpose of our dreams could be for memory retention, emotional processing, problem-solving, and recapping of our daily lives. While others believe dreams to be meaningless. But scientists and sleep experts hint that the phenomenon of dreams holds a crucial role in our well-being and performance.

How Does Dreaming Happen?

Now that we have a somewhat decent idea of what dreams are, let's examine how dreams happen. To better see the connection between cannabis and dreams, we need first to understand sleep. Our sleep-wake cycle, as it is known today, consists of four stages:

●    Stage 1 - Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM)

The first stage of your sleep is the transition period between your waking and sleeping. At this phase, your sleep is at its lightest and briefest which lasts only 5% of the total cycle. In stage 1, your brain produces alpha and theta waves, while your eye movement slows down.

●    Stage 2

Stage 2 NREM is still a light sleep but you are less aware of your surroundings. Here, your sleep gradually shifts into a deeper slumber.  During this stage, both your heart rate and temperature drops. Also, your brain activity starts to slow down.

●    Stage 3 - NREM, deep sleep

This is when the deepest stage of your sleep occurs when it's hard to wake you up. Your muscles start to relax, your breathing and blood pressure drops too. At this stage, your body starts tissue repair and growth, as well as strengthening your immune system. At stage 3 deep sleep, your brains produce slower delta waves, and your eye movement stops.

●    REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Stage

Now, this is when our dreams often happen. During this stage, you have rapid eye movements that are quick and side-to-side. At the REM stage, your brain becomes more active. Scientists affirm that during this stage, your brain functions to enhance your memory, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Moreover, the REM stage assists in rendering emotional resolution to painful or traumatic experiences.

However, the REM stage could be problematic to some especially people with disorders, especially those with anxiety and PTSD. Because sometimes our dreams produce nightmares or relive past traumatic and emotional events. This is why medical marijuana doctors use cannabis to help patients suffering from sleep-related issues and other health concerns.

How Cannabis Affects Our Dreams?

Although there's still no clear-cut answer as to how cannabis specifically affects sleep, scientific research shows promising inferences. Several studies reveal that weed can, indeed, decrease or suppress REM sleep. It further shows that cannabis can suppress dreams while abstinence can usually lead to a more vivid, strange, nightmarish-dreams.

●    The Pros

Sleep deprivation and disorders are common today. In the US, approximately 40 million Americans suffer from some kind of sleep-related disorder. And the cannabis ability to treat sleep and anxiety disorders, such as insomnia.  PTSD, recurring nightmares, and sleep apnea has led to a widespread call for legalization.

There are a lot of ways to use cannabis for insomnia. It is a really useful and helpful way to fight these kinds of disorders.

Studies show that people who use THC, or a mix of THC/CBD strains are found to fall asleep faster, better, and longer. Since cannabis can interfere or suppress the occurrence of REM sleep, people with sleep-related disorders greatly benefit from its therapeutic effect.

●    The Cons

The negative consequences of using cannabis, anecdotally show that it can trigger REM rebound. Regular users claim that during t-break, they experience an increase of denser dreams that are usually frightening and bizarre. Although, science has yet to prove the validity of REM rebound.

However, scientists and sleep experts warn that the long term suppression of REM sleep can lead to cognitive decline. This is because all the stages of the sleep cycle are crucial to our health and brain development. For younger developing brains, for instance, regular use of marijuana could result in negative health consequences.

So, the bottom-line: use cannabis with caution especially if you're using it as a sleep aid.