Dreams are a fascinating thing. We still don’t really have a proper idea of what they are or why they happen. Those who regularly consume cannabis have said that they don’t dream as much as what they did or they just can’t remember their dreams. Some might think that smoking weed daily or just in the evening would lead you to have some trippy dreams but surprisingly that is not always the case. Being the curious cat that I am I decided to look into this to try and find an answer. Turns out marijuana and dreams are linked.

Okay so lets just clarify the basic sleep research. Sleep is measured in waves using a electroencephalogram (EEG for short) and it works by measuring the electrical activity of your brain. Over the years we have been able to assign a frequency to a specific stage of sleep. So there are 5 stages ranging from 1-4 and then there’s rapid eye movement (REM).
Stages 1-3 are associated with beta, alpha and theta waves. These are the stages of sleep where you’re going from being awake to falling asleep. Stage 4 is all to do with delta wave sand this is the deep sleep stage. REM sleep is associated with gamma waves. Gamma waves can sometimes be known as dream waves. During REM sleep is when we dream basically.

So a study was done (by Pivik Et Al) which involved volunteers orally consuming THC along with a similar compound (they also measured drug less sleep as well) to measure and observe the relationship between marijuana and dreams. Turns out marijuana does cause you to dream less! Overall there wasn’t much of a difference during stages 1-3 but they noticed that THC increased stage 4 (deep sleep) and reduced REM (dream sleep).
Maybe the reason why you might feel more refreshed or well rested the morning after an evening sesh is because you had more deep sleep and less REM sleep.

Sweet dreams (or sleep tight),

Lots of love,

Emma xo