Sleep quality is extremely important for a person’s overall physical and mental health. When a person doesn’t get enough sleep or the sleep they do get is low-quality, it can negatively impact nearly every other aspect of their life.

The Mayo Clinic defines insomnia as “a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep.” Chronic insomnia occurs when symptoms persist for more than a month.

According to international researchers, as much as 16.2% of the world’s population suffers from insomnia. Globally, an estimated 7.9% suffer from ‘severe insomnia’, with researchers determining that insomnia and severe insomnia are “more prevalent in females versus males across all age groups.”

A team of public health investigators affiliated with various academic and wellness institutions based in the United Kingdom recently conducted a review examining medical cannabis use among UK insomnia patients. The review’s results were published in the academic journal PLOS Mental Health.

“This study aimed to assess changes in sleep-specific and general patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in individuals prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products for insomnia and to assess the incidence of adverse events. A case series was analysed with patients diagnosed with primary insomnia from the UK Medical Cannabis Registry (UKMCR).” the researchers wrote about the focus of their effort.

The patients who were part of the study had their outcomes assessed at the 1, 3, 6, 12, and 18-month timelines. The research efforts’ participants primarily consumed THC-dominant medical cannabis products.

Investigators found that medical cannabis use was associated with improved outcomes “across multiple metrics.” This included better-reported sleep quality, a reduction in reported anxiety, and improved health-related quality of life. Fewer than ten percent of participants reported any negative effects from cannabis use, with the most common reported side effects being dry mouth and fatigue.

“This case series study investigated the outcomes of insomnia patients prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products over an 18-month period. The findings indicate a promising association between cannabis-based medicinal product treatment and improvements in sleep-specific outcomes and general HRQoL [health-related quality of life] measures. … These findings can be used to inform future RCTs [randomized controlled trials].” the researchers concluded.