Research by scientists at the University of Sydney has identified a constituent in the cannabis plant that improves sleep. Their report is the first to use objective measures to show the component, known as cannabinol (CBN), increases sleep in rats. The study has been published in the leading journal Neuropsychopharmacology .
For decades, cannabis folklore has suggested that aged cannabis makes consumers sleepy via the build-up of CBN, however there was no convincing evidence for this. Our study provides the first objective evidence that CBN increases sleep, at least in rats, by modifying the architecture of sleep in a beneficial way." Professor Jonathon Arnold, lead author on the study, Director of Preclinical Research, at the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics and the Sydney Pharmacy School CBN is an end-product of the main intoxicating constituent of cannabis, delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
THC in cannabis is slowly converted to CBN over time, which means older cannabis contains higher levels of this compound. It has been suggested that the consumption of older cannabis is associated with a sleepier cannabis "high". In the United States, highly purified CBN products are being sold as sleep aids, but there has been little high-quality scientific evidence to support this application.
The research team at the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics tested the effects of purified CBN on sleep in rats. Using high-tech monitoring, the experiments provide.
