8. Improves Deep Sleep
Sleep is a surprisingly mysterious function. We can’t function without it, and yet we still aren’t entirely sure what’s going on in our bodies when we’re asleep. But one thing we do know is that your body moves through different stages of sleep.
One of the most important stages is the deep sleep stage. As far as researchers can tell, a number of things happen during this stage. During deep sleep, our bodies release growth hormones and ramp up production of certain proteins. Deep sleep may also help people maintain emotional health and social functionality. In addition to all this, researchers think deep sleep also helps encode memory. Because of this, it could play a vital role in the learning process.
So why are we telling you all this? Because cannabis helps improve deep sleep. According to research, marijuana helps you fall asleep and also increases the time you spend in deep sleep.
And since deep sleep seems to facilitate so many important functions, it’s a good thing to get as much of it as you can. Smoking weed is one powerful way to do that. But cannabis doesn’t necessarily increase each and every stage of sleep.
While it helps people fall asleep easier and increases how long we stay in a deep sleep, it may decrease the REM stage.
REM is when we have dreams. The brain activity that occurs during this stage may affect the development of certain mental skills and other learning processes. Smoking weed decreases REM but increases deep sleep.