Marijuana Use May Be Messing Up Your Sleep: Here's Why

First Posted: Feb 16, 2015 01:29 AM EST
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Could smoking marijuana increase the risk of narcolepsy?

A new study conducted by researchers from the Nationwide Children's Hospital found that close to 10 percent of adolescents sent to a Sleep Center for evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness also screened positive for marijuana use.

"Our findings highlight and support the important step of obtaining a urine drug screen, in any patients older than 13 years of age, before accepting test findings consistent with narcolepsy, prior to physicians confirming this diagnosis," said Mark L. Splaingard, MD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital and senior-author on the study, in a news release. "Urine drug screening is also important in any population studies looking at the prevalence of narcolepsy in adolescents, especially with the recent trend in marijuana decriminalization and legalization."

Researchers conducted a 10-year retrospective study to examine increased risk of the health issue. While diagnosing narcolepsy typically involves a clinical evaluation for excessive daytime sleepiness that's followed by a standardized multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), previous studies have shown how illicit drugs can potentially influence the diagnosis.

Researchers evaluated 383 children for narcolepsy and found that 43 percent who tested positive for marijuana had test results that were also consistent with narcolepsy or abnormal REM sleep patterns.

"We believe that many of the children who had positive urine drug testing for marijuana and testing consistent with narcolepsy had improvement of the symptom of excessive day time sleepiness after enrollment in a community drug program, because most didn't come back for repeat diagnostic studies once they were drug-free," added Dr. Splaingard, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "A key finding of this study is that marijuana use may be associated with excessive daytime sleepiness in some teenagers. A negative urine drug screen finding is an important part of the clinical evaluation before accepting a diagnosis of narcolepsy and starting treatment in a teenager."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine

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