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Sons Insomnia Cured By Cannabis

Restless Nights

Greenlighter
Joined
Aug 30, 2013
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1
Hello --

My son and I have a very open relationship, and he knows that he can come to me with anything and I will help him through it. A while ago he let me know that he had started using cannabis, but wouldnt tell me much information. Recently however, he has started opening up about many of the other substances that he has tried, and continues to use. He is a daily cannabis smoker and i'm not the biggest fan of him smoking, but I would rather have him smoking with his friends then out on the street with gangs and things along those lines. He has a great group of friends who all look out for each other, and seem to make sure they are always safe when experimenting with new substances. He is 17 years old by the way.

A few months ago, my son started expressing to me that he had been having difficulty sleeping at night, and would often find himself tossing and turning, unable to sleep. I told him that we would watch what would happen over the course of the next month or so. After watching his sleeping patterns and trying to cut out things like caffiene, and tv before bed and things like that, he still showed no signs of improvement. About a week later, i noticed that he was starting to sleep fine at night again.

A few days ago, he came clean to me and told me that he has been smoking cannabis about an hour before bed, and has had no troubles falling asleep. At first i was mad, and didnt condone what he was doing. We talked about it quite a bit, and after recommending some OTC sleep aids such as diphenhydramine and doccylamine succlate, he told me that he has tried those too, but found them not to help. He also told me that he felt much better about smoking a little bit of weed before bed, then he does putting some of these pills into his body.

I must say i have seen a great difference in his sleeping patterns after hes been smoking before bed, and he seems more lively and awake the following day. However i dont know if I should allow him to keep doing this as it is illegal. I try to keep a fairly open mind about this subject, and have never experimented with anything besides alchohol myself. i would really appreciate some feedback as to what you would do in this situation. Would you allow your 17 year old son to smoke cannabis before bed if it cured his insomnia? Would it in any way be detrimental to his health?

Thanks in advance from a parent who is in need of advice!
 
Hello Restless Nights -

Have you considered taking your son to the Doctor to have sleep studies done? There could be an underlying factor for him being unable to sleep, that may be out of both of your control. That being said, I wouldn't go into the Doctors office and start telling him that your son has been smoking marijuana in order to sleep, as they may label your son (possibly even you) a drug seeker.

If smoking marijuana before bed has a noticeable positive effects on your sons sleeping patterns, I don't really see any harm in him continuing to do it. The only main risk I see would be the smoke in his lungs from smoking. There are alternatives such as vaporizers and edibles that you could talk to him about if you feel like it would be necessary.

Marijuana isn't as bad as it is made out to be, and can be used as a great tool in many situations.

Best of luck to you and your son!
 
I must say i have seen a great difference in his sleeping patterns after hes been smoking before bed, and he seems more lively and awake the following day. However i dont know if I should allow him to keep doing this as it is illegal. I try to keep a fairly open mind about this subject, and have never experimented with anything besides alchohol myself. i would really appreciate some feedback as to what you would do in this situation. Would you allow your 17 year old son to smoke cannabis before bed if it cured his insomnia? Would it in any way be detrimental to his health?

Thanks in advance from a parent who is in need of advice!

Hello Restless Nights -

[...]

Best of luck to you and your son!



I agree 100% with ComedownsSuck's entire post.

To expand a bit, at 17 years old your son's brain is still developing. It may be near the final stages of adolescence but there's still some... err.... "growth" going on. Marijuana use among adolescents and teens can have long-lasting neurobehavioral consequences (source). That study there is a good one, in my opinion, I just can't find a free-to-access version of anything other than it's abstract anywhere...

That said, it's my opinion that if your son continues to be a responsible medicinal user at his age the detrimental effects will be negligible (also provided your son has no underlying mental issues or predispositions to mental issues.) Putting myself in your shoes, my biggest concern would be legal troubles. Those can easily be avoided through responsible, moderate use, though, and it seems like, from what your son has told you and what you've told us, he's got the whole "responsible use" thing down pat.
 
I'm sorry but this is just an excuse to keep smoking. Weed probably caused the insomnia too, it happens when you go in periods of smoking.
 
Hello Restless Nights (and Bluelight)

In my own personal case I find smoking cannabis before bed only masks the issue short term rather than actually solves it,
I would suspect (everyone is different) that If your son now tried to sleep without his Joint before bed he would find it even harder to fall asleep than he had previous to this new method.

For me personally a whole change of routine was needed, it was difficult at first but paid off after not too long (10 days or so)

I wish you and your son the best in combating these sleep issues.
 
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