Insomnia
Depression is a clinical disease defined by www.thefreedictionary.com as “the inability to obtain an adequate amount or quality of sleep. The difficulty can be in falling asleep, remaining asleep, or both. People with insomnia do not feel refreshed when they wake up. Insomnia is a common symptom affecting millions of people that may be caused by many conditions, diseases, or circumstances.” It is also categorized into 3 specific types. These types range in order from least bothersome to most debilitating as: transient insomnia, acute insomnia and chronic insomnia. Those with chronic insomnia often experience such conditions as hallucinations and physical fatigue. Transient insomnia, is the least troubling of the three types, but those who suffer from it still experience slightly impaired motor skills and drowsiness during the day. It’s most common causes range from such things as a different environment to chronic depression/anxiety.
Those who do suffer from this debilitating illness either have extreme difficulty getting to sleep, or they wake up often throughout the night and have difficulty getting back to sleep. This lack of sleep then affects them the next day. And the next, and the next and the next in a viscous cycle.
While typically men and women over the age of 65 are most subject to suffering from insomnia, about 60 million Americans of all ages also deal with this frustrating disease. All too often, we see doctors and physicians prescribing sedative pills, benzodiazepines, et cetera to treat those with insomnia. While these types of medications usually do in fact cause those patients to have solid, consistent and unbroken sleep throughout the night, nearly 70% of these patients report waking up feeling groggy and tired. An additional 8% develop an addiction when prescribes such medications as Xanex or Valium.
Most of the 16 states and Washington D.C. allow residents to be prescribed medical marijuana for insomnia. Marijuana has been proven - whether America’s government will admit it or not - to be an extremely effective sleep medication. Unlike most of the medications typically prescribed by doctors for insomnia, cannabis does not cause users to wake up feeling groggy and does not cause addiction. An additional benefit is that marijuana does not cause damage to any major organs, especially when taken orally or vaporized as there is no damage to the lungs.
Most doctors who do give medical marijuana prescriptions to those suffering from insomnia recommend indicas or indica-dominant strains of cannabis for the patient to use. The reason for this is that cannabis indica typically has less concentration of the active ingredient THC than its sativa counterpart does, resulting in an increased body-high and diminished cerebral effect. Additionally, many patients who suffer from insomnia, have it because of body aches or other pains sometimes associated with past injuries or chemotherapy. Indica types are extremely effective against chronic pain, such as most members of the Purple family of cannabis. However, some sativas like - Jack Herer - can be used to treat insomnia if the patient waits until the effect is over and if that strain happens to cause a crash after the effect. Jack Herer is notorious for causing a crash, as is Catpiss, another sativa.
If you’re not already a medical marijuana patient and have suffered from insomnia, being prescribed traditional medications, you may want to look into finding a “420-friendly” doctor to prescribe you a cannabis card. A list of medical doctors may be found listed under physicians on this website and we strongly encourage you to look for another way of treating your insomnia, if you aren’t pleased with your current medication.
