Dr. Matt Walker

And then I stopped using.

And one of the strangest things happened to me.

I just started to have the most wild, vivid, crazy dreams.

And I didn't know what was going on.

And it's a very simple explanation.

As you've been using, your brain has been compromised in the amount of REM sleep it's been getting.

And you've been building up chronically a REM sleep debt.

And your brain is smart in the sense that it does try to clock to some degree a counter of how much REM sleep you've lost.

And many people will say, yeah, I don't really remember my dreams when I'm using.

But when they stop, the brain finally, because it's been cleansed of the thing that's the roadblock to REM sleep, not only do they go back to having the normal amount of REM sleep that people would have, they have that, plus they have what we call a REM sleep rebound, which is even more and more intense REM sleep, which leads to more intense dreaming.

So it's a very, I suspect there's a lot of people who've had that experience listening if they have been users and they've stopped.

So that's the second reason we don't advocate it.

The third reason is that when you stop using, you also go through a very vicious insomnia withdrawal syndrome.

Often many people will do.

Now that depends on how much you've been using, for how long you've been using.

If you look at the data, and by the way, part of the clinical diagnostic, the psychiatric diagnostic description of cannabis withdrawal is insomnia.

That's how reliable this insomnia problem is when you come off cannabis.

And if you look at the data, one of the main reasons that people relapse and start using cannabis again, even though they don't want to, is because they can't deal with the insomnia that withdrawal has given them.

So you don't want to get into that vicious cycle.

should you wish, again, it's your choice.