Does sleep relate to next-day cannabis use during treatment? Findings from an adolescent and young adult motivational enhancement and cognitive behavioral therapy plus topiramate intervention

Abstract

Background: Interventions for youth cannabis use have limited efficacy. Sleep is likely to affect treatment response, as sleep difficulties are cross-sectionally associated with use and common during treatment. This analysis examined how sleep duration and subjective trouble sleeping related to next-day cannabis use among youth during cannabis treatment.

Method: Participants (N=64) received a psychosocial intervention plus topiramate versus placebo while completing a 6-week ecological momentary assessment study. Time-varying effect modeling (TVEM) examined within- and between-person associations between sleep and cannabis use and how the strength of within-person associations varied over the course of treatment.

Results: TVEM resvealed that, between-participants, youth with longer average sleep duration used cannabis less often controlling for baseline cannabis use, topiramate, and weekend status. Daily within-person fluctuations in sleep duration and trouble were not associated with use.

Conclusions: Findings suggest regularly shorter sleep may impede treatment outcomes. Adolescents who regularly have insufficient sleep durations likely need additional intervention to improve sleep difficulties in tandem with cannabis use reduction.

Keywords: Daily diary; Ecological momentary assessment; Emerging adults; Marijuana; Time-varying effect modeling.