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How Marijuana Affects Dreaming
It’s no secret that marijuana can have a powerful effect on sleep, and many users develop a habit of smoking right before bed.
Marijuana is probably best known for its ability to induce drowsiness. In other words, it can make you feel sleepy. In addition, people who smoke before bed often report a decrease in the time it takes to fall asleep and an increase in restfulness of the sleep itself.
A lack of dreams is also commonly reported by nighttime marijuana users, which demonstrates marijuana’s unique effect on the different stages of sleep, specifically REM sleep.
Sleep is one of the more mysterious aspects of human health, and scientists are still unravelling many of the details. However, decades of research on marijuana and sleep have revealed a number of interesting findings.
What scientists now know is that cannabinoids – the active ingredients in cannabis, such as THC and CBD – actually mimic the effects of natural compounds in the body called endocannabinoids. What’s more, studies show that endocannabinoids act as natural regulators of the sleep/wake cycle.
As a result, sleep seems to be just another one of the many biological functions controlled – at least in part – by the body’s endocannabinoid system. And by interacting with this biological system, marijuana can affect your sleep in a number of ways.
STAGES OF SLEEP
To understand how marijuana affects one’s sleep, it is important to understand how sleep works.
Sleep is an active, naturally occurring state of the brain. During sleep, the brain cycles through different stages of activity, also known as the stages of sleep. The two basic stages of sleep are rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. However, NREM sleep is broken down into stages 1 through 3, while REM sleep is considered stage 4. Dreaming usually occurs during REM sleep.
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Source: http://truthisscary.com/2015/01/how-marijuana-affects-dreaming/
