Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 322, April 2023, 115096
Psychiatry Research

Study of the association between cannabis use and sleep disturbances in a large sample of University students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115096 Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Sleep disturbances and cannabis use are common among University students.

  • Insomnia is more common among weekly and daily cannabis users.

  • A 2-fold higher likelihood of insomnia is observed among daily cannabis users.

  • This relationship is not explained by mental health disorders.

  • Results were similar for other sleep disturbances.

Abstract

Sleep complaints and cannabis use are common among University students and are related to detrimental effects on health. The aim of this study was to explore their association. This cross-sectional study based on the i-Share e-cohort included French students between 18 and 30 years old (n = 14,787). Frequency of cannabis use was categorized into daily, weekly, monthly, and never/rarely use. Sleep complaints were defined using four items (i.e., insomnia, sleepiness, poor sleep quality, and sleep deprivation). In the whole sample (mean age: 20.4 years, 75.5% of females), 22.7% had insomnia, 18.3% had sleepiness, 22.4% had poor sleep quality, 52.5% had sleep deprivation, and 5.8% used cannabis weekly or daily. After adjustment, the likelihood of insomnia was significantly higher by 45% in cannabis users compared to non-users. The estimates steadily increased with frequency of use, reaching a 2.0-fold higher likelihood of insomnia in daily users compared to never/rarely users. Results were similar for the other sleep complaints. These findings provide support for an association between cannabis use and sleep complaints, particularly insomnia, among University students. Though direction and causality cannot be established in this setting, these results suggest warning students and health professionals about the association between cannabis use and sleep complaints.

Introduction

Sleep quality and quantity among University students is a topic of growing concern (Manzar et al., 2015). Emerging adulthood is a vulnerable developmental period characterized by a high frequency of impaired sleep. Previous international studies have shown that poor sleep quality is predominant and concerns 55% of students (Jahrami et al., 2020). Notably, 19% of students complain of insomnia (Jiang et al., 2015). Increased autonomy, academic and social pressure, and irregular sleep-wake times at an age when the circadian rhythm is delayed (Wolfson, 2010) and the central nervous system is still maturing (Drake et al., 2004) could explain the altered sleep patterns in this population. These sleep alterations are all the more concerning because of their detrimental effects on mental and physical health and cognitive capacities, which is especially important for the daily-functioning and academic success of students (Buysse, 2014; Garbarino et al., 2016; Shochat et al., 2014). The Covid-19 health crisis has further aggravated sleep complaints in the French population (Santé Publique France [Public Health France], 2021).

Cannabis use, despite being illegal in France, is common among young adults within the country: in 2020, 13.9% used it monthly and 4.0% daily (Nézet et al., 2021). While controversies about its legalization or decriminalization have been ongoing for decades, its high level of consumption in young French adults is of concern as cannabis abuse could set the stage for poor mental and physical health outcomes that persist through adulthood (Brown et al., 2001).

In particular, some studies have explored the effect of cannabis use on sleep as an important determinant of health (Angarita et al., 2016; Babson et al., 2017; Kesner and Lovinger, 2020). Early contributions focused on experimental assessment of the immediate effects of cannabis on sleep in small samples via polysomnography (Barratt et al., 1974; Freemon, 1972; Karacan et al., 1976; Nicholson et al., 2004). These studies showed that acute cannabis use decreases sleep latency and wake after sleep onset, increases slow wave sleep, and decreases rapid-eye movement sleep, whereas withdrawal has the opposite effect (Angarita et al., 2016; Babson et al., 2017; Kesner and Lovinger, 2020). However, chronic cannabis users may develop a tolerance for acute effects, leading to increased sleep latency and decreased slow wave sleep (Babson et al., 2017), which is essential to cerebral restoration, recovery, and memorization (Roth, 2009). More recently, observational studies have investigated the relationship between sleep and cannabis use in real-life conditions (Johnson and Breslau, 2001; Kwon et al., 2021; Leger et al., 2022; Navarro-Martínez et al., 2020; Ogeil et al., 2015; Pasch et al., 2012; Roane and Taylor, 2008; Troxel et al., 2021). Some of these studies found an increased frequency of sleep disturbances with increased cannabis use in adolescents (Kwon et al., 2021; Pasch et al., 2012) and young adults (Roane and Taylor, 2008; Troxel et al., 2021).

Few studies have focused on University students, although they are particularly affected by sleep complaints. Sample sizes of these studies were often limited and they did not take into account important suspected confounders in the association such as mental health disorders, economic situation, or sleeping drug intake (Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010; Navarro-Martínez et al., 2020; Phillips et al., 2018; Wang and Bíró, 2021; Yurasek et al., 2020). Besides, sleep measurement was usually focused on one single dimension (i.e., insomnia or sleep quality) and cannabis use on one frequency (used/not used in the past month) (Pasch et al., 2012; Troxel et al., 2021).

The main aim of this study was to have a thorough analysis of the association between cannabis use and sleep complaints and in a large sample of University students, and to take into account several important individual and behavioral characteristics. Our secondary aim was to evaluate the role of previous mental health diagnoses in this association.

Section snippets

Study design, setting, and participants

This was a cross-sectional analysis of i-Share, an observational e-cohort study of French-speaking students recruited from universities and higher education institutes in France that started in February 2013. This project (www.i-share.fr ) is supported by the French Universities of Bordeaux, Versailles, and Nice. In these partner universities, students were informed about the purpose and aims of the study by flyers, information stands at registrations, during lectures, and via social media and

Sample description

The mean participant age was 20.4 years (SD=2.3, range=18–30 years), 11,166 (75.5%) in the whole sample were female, 5799 (39.2%) were freshmen, and 3430 (23.2%) were attending Health Studies. A total of 1771 (12.0%) students reported a previous diagnosis of depression and 2054 (13.9%) a previous diagnosis of anxiety (Table 1).

Regarding the frequency of cannabis consumption, 3030 (20.5%) students reported monthly use, 645 (4.4%) weekly use, and 219 (1.5%) daily use. Weekly or daily cannabis use

Discussion

In this large sample of University students, we found that the likelihood of having insomnia was higher by 45% in cannabis users compared to non-users. The estimates steadily increased with frequency of use, reaching a 2.0-fold higher likelihood of insomnia in daily users compared to never/rarely users. Other sleep complaints showed similar associations with cannabis use. Individual and behavioral characteristics, including sex, perceived economic situation, physical activity, tobacco, and

Non-financial disclosure

None.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Julien Coelho: Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft. Ilaria Montagni: Investigation, Conceptualization, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi: Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Sabine Plancoulaine: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing. Christophe Tzourio: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation,

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the entire i-Share team who supported us in carrying out this study. Also, we would like to thank Garance Perret and Edwidge Pereira for their involvement in data management and Julie Arsandaux for helping us with the methodology and statistics.

Funding

The i-Share team is currently supported by an unrestricted grant of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council (Conseil Régional Nouvelle-Aquitaine, grant no. 4370420). It has also received grants from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Health Agency (Agence Régionale de Santé Nouvelle-Aquitaine, grant no. 6066R-8), Public Health France (Santé Publique France, grant no. 19DPPP023–0), and The National Institute against cancer INCa (grant no. INCa_11502).

The funding bodies were not involved in the

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