According to American Academy of Sleep Medicine about 10 percent of adults have insomnia that is severe enough to cause daytime consequences.
Fortunately, a medical breakthrough found medicinal benefits in cannabis to treat sleep disorders.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active compound in cannabis is responsible for the high effect reducing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which is responsible for your dreams. Tokers will experience fewer dreams for a deeper and more restful sleep.
But if you love dreaming, discontinuation of cannabis will get you to sleep and will bring you myriad dreams as you visit slumberland.
Why Do We Dream?
Despite many theories about why we dream, researchers are still baffled why we do. Most agree that dreams do happen during the REM sleep. REM lasts only a few minutes but gets longer as you fall into a deep sleep, you might spend 20 minutes in a single dream. There are many beliefs about dreaming some are:
A continuation of waking consciousness
Dreams reflect the things that you were doing when awake. Through waking hours your brain handle millions of input during the day. Some involve minor sensory details like the red car that caught your attention to the complex such as your marketing plan to offset dwindling sales.
During sleep, your brain plows through all this information and decides what to keep and what to ignore.
Process emotions
If something is bugging you during waking time, that emotion will battle it out during your dream cycle.
For instance, anxiety, misery, loneliness, and physical torment are emotions that are mirrored in your dreams when you lost a loved one. Your brain is focused only on that actual traumatic event and is illustrating the feeling when you are sleeping.
Predict the future
Sometimes dream plays out in real life. It could be a coincidence you were in the same situation in your dream and you acted in a certain way that changed your future.
Don’t serve any function
Dreams are byproducts of the brain while you are snoozing. Some say that it’s just how the brain winds down for the night firing on all cylinders and meaningless.
Types of Dreams
Every person has their own unique way of dreaming. Interpreters and analysts gathered common types of dreams through waking moments and categorized them, here are some:
Daydreaming
Daydreaming is a level of consciousness between slumber and wakefulness. A daydreamer spends between 70 to 120 minutes a day to let their minds wander. As the level of awareness drops you lose yourself to an imagined situation.
Lucid
These dreams are different from the others a dreamer is fully conscious while dreaming. The dreamer has full control to help understand yourself better. It takes practice to be a lucid dreamer and can help those who have nightmares.
Nightmare
A nightmare is a sign of fear from accepting a certain life situation and needs to be confronted. It is a disturbing dream the dreamer wakes up frightened and restless. Most sufferers have a history of psychiatric problems, bad drug experiences, suicidal tendencies, and rocky relationships.
Recurring
Recurring dreams are repetitive because the issue in the dream is unsettled. Once the solution is found it stops.
Healing
Dreams of this nature is an omen that something is wrong with your body and you need to visit the doctor. This can help prevent possible health problems and provide cure to existing ailment.
Signal
Signal dreams use symbolism making it hard to decipher and is telling you something important. Messages can be related to your happiness, overpowering fears, career, health, and relationships.
How Cannabis Affect Dreams?
Potheads don’t have a clue how cannabis affect dreams. The truth is they have a reduced likelihood to have a dream or can’t dream at all.
REM sleep is necessary to enter the realm of dreams lack of it will make one experience less dreams. Once you enter REM sleep breathing is uneven, heart rate rises, eyes move rapidly, and muscles are momentarily paralyzed. A whole sleep cycle takes about 100 minutes with the first REM stage occurring 70 to 90 minutes after dozing and lasts about 20 minutes.
It makes sense that cannabis stops slumber because it subdues REM sleep limiting your chances of reaching the dreamscape. The diminishing effects of pot on dreams are helpful to people who have nightmares.
Contrarily, quitting weed will lead to renewal of what you’ve been missing – REM sleep and dreams.
Cannabis Consumption Methods for Sleep
As the marijuana industry keeps growing with more states legalizing both medical and recreational use, there are many methods of cannabis consumption. A lot of people still prefer the old-style blunt or pipe but with a wider audience cannabis dispensaries offer more ways of consumption without the smoke and lung damage.
The closest alternative to smoking are vape pens that use specialized cannabis vaping oils. The key difference is that instead of burning the oil is vaporized and the damage to the lungs is minimal. Vaping is a harmless method of consumption if you make sure to follow all vaping safety rules.
The next best choice are cannabis tinctures that are used by applying under the tongue. This is the most popular method that is used to aid sleep disorders.
Another good option are cannabis edibles. They are perfect for people who prefer non-smoking methods but it’s difficult to predict or control their effect, so you need to be precise with the dosage and timing.
All of these are safe and legal if you make sure to buy from a licenced dispensary and avoid illegal and fake products.
How Cannabis Improve Your Sleep?
If you are having troubles with getting shut-eye, you are not alone there are about 70 million Americans experiencing a sleep disorder.
To address the huge number of persons with sleeping disorder doctors recommend cannabis as a cure. According to marijuana doctors, cannabis is an effective sleep aid since it restores an individual’s sleep cycle with little or no side effects.
Marijuana has different strains; some are relaxing and sedating, others are more stimulating depending on the amount of the different cannabinoids. The two you will often encounter are Cannabidiol (CBD) which is non-psychoactive and THC which is responsible for the high feeling, psychoactive.
Consuming cannabis strains with high THC cuts REM sleep reducing dreams which works well for people suffering nightmares. There will be less time spent in dreaming and more time in a deep sleep. The deep sleep state is seen as the most therapeutic, tranquil part of the sleep cycle and makes the body feel rested and rejuvenated.
