Abstract Introduction Sleep reactivity is linked to increased risk of insomnia and trauma-related distress. College students may be at risk of using cannabis as a sleep aid to cope with trauma-related sleep problems, however, no existing studies investigate the role of sleep-related cannabis expectancies and sleep reactivity on cannabis use as a sleep aid. Methods The present study evaluated whether either positive or negative sleep-related cannabis expectancies moderated the relation between sleep reactivity and use of cannabis as a sleep aid. 664 college students (83.3% women) aged 18 to 24 (Mage = 18.98, SD = 1.07) completed self-report measures, including lifetime history of potentially traumatic events (Trauma History Questionnaire; THQ), Sleep Reactivity (Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test; FIRST), Positive and Negative Sleep Related Cannabis Expectancies (Sleep-Related Cannabis Expectancy Questionnaire (SR-CEQ), PTSD symptoms (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5; PCL-5), and a question about cannabis use as a sleep aid in the past 12 months. Results Above and beyond gender and PTSD symptoms, sleep reactivity was positively associated with likelihood of using cannabis as a sleep aid (OR = 1.04, CI = 1.01-1.08, p = .01). Further, there was an interaction between sleep reactivity and positive sleep-related cannabis expectancies (OR = 1.00, CI = 0.99-1.00, p = .04), such that sleep reactivity was associated with higher likelihood of use of cannabis as a sleep aid at low (OR = 1.08, CI = 1.02-1.15, p = .01) and moderate (OR = 1.05, CI = 1.01-1.09, p = .01) levels of positive cannabis-use expectancies. The relation between sleep reactivity and cannabis use as a sleep aid was nonsignificant for the top 35.54% of positive sleep-related cannabis expectancy values. There was no significant interaction between sleep reactivity and negative sleep-related cannabis expectancies. Conclusion Results indicate that at high levels of positive cannabis-use expectancies, the use of cannabis as a sleep aid may be better explained by factors other than sleep reactivity. College students may benefit from educational resources that address positive beliefs and misconceptions surrounding cannabis use and sleep health. Support (if any) Funding for G.M.S. was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T23DA035200).
Seymour et al. (Fri,) studied this question.