We asked r/trees what cannabis has honestly helped with, and one word came back again and again: sleep. The community was equally honest about the catch, including the REM tradeoff most sleep-aid ads would never mention. Here is what real people said about falling asleep, staying asleep, and where CBN actually fits.
🧪 Lab Tested | 👩💼 Woman-Owned | 🏆 Est. 2017
Every quote below is a real comment from a public Reddit thread, shown with username and upvote count and linked to the live discussion. These are personal experiences, not medical advice, and cannabis is not a treatment for insomnia or any sleep disorder. If a sleep problem is disrupting your life, please talk to a doctor. If you are concerned about your own substance use, the SAMHSA National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) is free, confidential, and open 24/7.
The Question, and Why Sleep Kept Coming Up
We asked r/trees a simple question: what’s one thing cannabis has honestly helped you with? The thread pulled 274 upvotes and 613 comments, and the answers ranged from mental quiet to appetite to getting through a hard stretch. One theme surfaced over and over, often in a single word.
Sleep.
It showed up on its own, it showed up stacked with other benefits, and it showed up in enough detail that we pulled the sleep comments into their own article. A note before we start: everything below is a personal experience shared by a stranger on the internet, not medical advice, and cannabis is not a treatment for insomnia or any sleep disorder. If your sleep is genuinely broken, the first move should be a doctor, not a dispensary. With that said, here is what the community reported.
Sleep, Said Plainly and Often
The most striking thing about the sleep answers was how little explanation people felt they needed. The word did the work.
“Sleep. Its the main reason i love it soo much. I was an insomniac my whole life until i started smoking.”
u/ohmyperfection, 3 upvotes
“Sleep and appetite mostly”
u/MrBulwark, 2 upvotes
Others folded sleep into a short list of what cannabis does for them: “Sleep. Nausea. Appetite” (u/FckCombatPencil686, 8 upvotes), “Relaxing, pain and sleep” (u/BlueMonkey3D, 3 upvotes), “Sleep, focus, sometimes I solve work issues at home, after a smoke session” (u/amindspin74, 2 upvotes). When one benefit gets named this often with this little fuss, it tells you something about why people actually reach for the product at night.
Falling Asleep vs Staying Asleep
Read closely and the sleep answers split into two different problems. Some people struggle to drop off. Others drop off fine and then wake up at 3 a.m. on a loop. The comments that got specific were usually about the second kind.
“Sleeping through the night, i used to wake up multiple times most nights but now when i smoke i usually dont wake up until my alarm goes off”
u/Pendragon_Puma, 1 upvotes
“Insomnia. I’ve operated on less than four hours of sleep more times than I can even remember. I think I averaged about five hours a night over the course of a year once. It helps me getting to sleep with low dose gummies, and if I wake up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, a quick puff and I’m usually able to slip back in to sleep.”
u/TheBoringProtagonist, 1 upvotes
That second comment is a quietly useful blueprint: a low-dose edible for onset, a small puff to get back down after a wake-up. It also lines up with the loudest sleep answer in a different thread we ran, where “Sleep well” landed 191 upvotes on its own.
“Sleep well”
u/AdRadiant9379, 191 upvotes
The Loud-Brain Wind-Down
For a lot of commenters, the sleep problem was really a bedtime brain problem. The body was ready; the mind would not stop narrating.
“a whole lot, but winding down at the end of the night bcs my brain is so damn loud and bitchy all the time is a big one”
u/mozesty_, 1 upvotes
The nightmare angle came up too. In our daily-life thread, “Sleep without nightmares” drew its own agreement (u/Obtuse-Posterior, 14 upvotes), with a reply describing the specific misery of waking up in a panic night after night. Several people across both threads described evening use, specifically, as the thing that let them stop dreading bed. We are paraphrasing the heavier versions of that story on purpose, because a hemp brand should report the theme without putting clinical claims in a stranger’s mouth. The pattern is real: for some people, the wind-down is the whole point.
The Honest Part: The REM Tradeoff
Here is where the r/trees crowd earns its reputation for honesty. Nobody in the thread pretended cannabis sleep is free of downsides.
“Yes, I know fucks with your REM sleep, but getting any sleep at all was a problem for me for years.”
u/interprime, 6 upvotes
That is the tradeoff stated out loud: regular use is commonly reported to reduce dreaming or dream recall, and some people happily accept that in exchange for actually sleeping. But it is not a universal law, and the community argued about it. Over in our daily-life thread, two long-time users pushed back hard.
“I smoke for over 20 years, almost every day/evening. I dream every night and am well rested after ~7 hours of sleep.”
u/420_Towelie, 9 upvotes
“I truly don’t understand the blanketing of saying that you don’t dream when you have marijuana. I’ve always been a vivid dreamer. Even before I ever smoked and I still am.”
u/Mockturtle22, 4 upvotes
The published research on cannabis and REM sleep is thinner than either side would like. What the threads actually show is range: the REM effect is real for some people and missing for others. If dreaming matters to you, test it on yourself for a week or two before you trust anyone’s blanket claim, ours included.
How the Community Actually Doses
The dosing advice buried in these comments was more sensible than most sleep-aid marketing. The through-line: less than you think, timed to bedtime.
TheBoringProtagonist’s low-dose-gummy-plus-a-puff routine was the clearest version. Others mentioned smoking specifically in the evening rather than earlier, to line the effect up with sleep. “Sleep and getting things done around the house” (u/CultofBooty, 4 upvotes) hints at the flip side: use it at the wrong time and you are cleaning the kitchen at midnight, not sleeping.
The practical starting point most experienced users describe: begin with the lowest dose on the label, give an edible up to two hours before deciding it did not work, and only then adjust. Too much is the most common way to wake up groggy and blame the product
Where CBN Fits
CBN is the cannabinoid the community reaches for by name when the topic turns to sleep, and it is right there in this article’s title, so it is worth being straight about what it is and is not.
CBN forms as cannabis ages, and it has picked up a nickname: the sleepy cannabinoid. Some early research points to relaxing properties. But the evidence on CBN by itself is thin, and most of what gets credited to CBN comes from products that pair it with THC or CBD, where the combination does the work. We think the honest position is the one your smartest friend would give you: CBN is worth trying for evening wind-down, and you should raise an eyebrow at any brand claiming it is a knockout drug on its own. For the full science on how CBN is thought to work, we keep a dedicated explainer in our cannabis education hub, and this article is not trying to replace it.
The Evening Lineup
If the thread pointed you toward trying something for sleep, here is where TribeTokes fits: CBN-forward, lab-tested, nothing hidden. Every product below has a public certificate of analysis. None of them is a treatment for a sleep disorder, and all of them contain THC, so plan around drug tests.
THE CBN-FORWARD PICK
Live Resin CBN Gummies
★★★★★ 4.87 (23 reviews)
CBN + Delta 9 THC | Live resin | Evening use
CBN paired with a small amount of THC, which is the combination most of the community’s sleep talk actually points to. Reviewers most often mention an easy evening wind-down. Take 30 to 60 minutes before bed as part of a routine.
Will produce a positive result on standard drug tests.
THE LIGHTER-TOUCH PICK
CBD Sleep Gummies
★★★★★ 5.00 (35 reviews)
CBD + CBN | Lower THC | Gentle evening wind-down
CBD leading alongside CBN, for anyone who wants a softer landing than a THC-forward gummy. The pairing is the point: two cannabinoids working together rather than one doing all the lifting.
Will produce a positive result on standard drug tests.
FOR DIALING IN YOUR DOSE
CBN Tincture
★★★★★ 4.81 (16 reviews)
CBN | Sublingual | Drop-by-drop control
A tincture lets you control the amount to the drop, which suits the low-and-slow approach the thread kept describing, or a small amount if you wake in the night. Start low and give it time.
Will produce a positive result on standard drug tests.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sleep was one of the most common answers in the r/trees thread we pulled these comments from, often posted as a single word. Commenters described three different wins: falling asleep faster, staying asleep through the night, and quieting a loud brain at bedtime so they could wind down at all. One user summed up the appeal as the main reason they love cannabis after a lifetime of poor sleep. These are personal experiences, not clinical findings, and the research on cannabis and sleep is still developing. Cannabis is not a treatment for insomnia or any sleep disorder. What the thread documents is a consistent pattern in how people describe using it at night, which is useful context if you are curious, but your own results will vary and a doctor is the right person to ask about a persistent sleep problem.
Reddit commenters drew this line clearly, and it matters for choosing a product. Falling asleep is sleep onset: the wind-down, the quieting of a racing mind, the shift from wired to drowsy. Staying asleep is different, and several users said it was the bigger deal for them. One described going from waking up multiple times a night to sleeping straight through until the alarm. Another, a self-described lifelong short sleeper, said a low-dose gummy helps at bedtime and a quick puff gets them back down if they wake at 3 a.m. If your problem is onset, a fast-acting format like a vape may suit the wind-down window. If it is staying asleep, an edible with a longer runway, like a gummy, tends to be what people reach for. Neither is a cure, and finding your format usually takes some trial and error.
CBN is a minor cannabinoid that forms as cannabis ages, and the community often calls it the sleepy cannabinoid. Some early research suggests CBN may have relaxing properties, but the evidence on CBN by itself is thin, and much of what people credit to CBN comes from products that pair it with THC or CBD. That combination, rather than CBN alone, is where most of the anecdotal and early scientific support actually sits. TribeTokes uses CBN in evening-focused gummies and a tincture, always with a published certificate of analysis so you can see exactly what is in each batch. If you want the deeper science on how CBN is thought to work, our full explainer is linked from this article. The short version: CBN is worth trying for evening wind-down, but treat bold sleepy-cannabinoid claims from any brand with healthy skepticism.
Often, and the Reddit community is refreshingly honest about it. Several commenters acknowledged the tradeoff directly, with one saying they know cannabis interferes with REM sleep but that getting any sleep at all had been the harder problem for them. Regular use is commonly reported to reduce dreaming or dream recall, which some people welcome and others miss. But it is not universal: in a separate thread, a user who has smoked nightly for over 20 years said they still dream every night, and another lifelong vivid dreamer said nothing changed for them. The published research on cannabis and REM is limited and mixed, so the honest takeaway is that the REM effect is real for some people and absent for others. If vivid dreaming matters to you, your own experience over a week or two is the only reliable data.
Low and slow was the pattern that came up most. One commenter with lifelong sleep trouble described using low-dose gummies to get down at night, then a single quick puff to get back to sleep if they woke in the middle of the night. Others mentioned smoking in the evening specifically, rather than earlier in the day, to line the effect up with bedtime. The practical logic is simple: too high a dose can leave you groggy the next morning, which defeats the purpose, so most experienced users work up slowly from a small amount rather than starting big. Start with the lowest dose on the label, give an edible up to two hours before deciding it is not working, and adjust from there. Anyone facing a drug test should skip THC sleep products entirely, since they will produce a positive result.
Yes. Any sleep product containing Delta 9 THC, Delta 8 THC, THCa, or HHC will produce a positive result on a standard drug test. That includes most CBN sleep gummies and tinctures, because they are typically formulated with a small amount of THC to round out the effect. Drug tests do not detect THC directly; they detect THC metabolites, which your body makes after any form of THC and which can stay detectable for days or weeks. Full-spectrum CBD sleep products contain trace THC too, so we recommend abstinence from all cannabinoid products, including full-spectrum CBD, for anyone who gets tested. Pure CBD or CBG isolate products carry no drug test risk, but always read the certificate of analysis to confirm what is actually in the product before you rely on that.
This is a personal medical decision, and it is genuinely not ours to make for you. Some Reddit commenters described preferring cannabis to prescription sleep aids, and that reflects their experience, not a recommendation that it is safer or more effective for you. Both cannabis and sleep medications carry their own considerations, including tolerance, next-day grogginess, and interactions with other things you take. Cannabis is not a proven substitute for prescribed medication, and stopping or swapping a prescription is a conversation to have with the doctor who prescribed it, not with a Reddit thread or a hemp brand. What we can offer is transparency on our own products through published lab results. For a decision this individual, an informed professional who knows your history is the right call.
The evening lineup centers on CBN, the cannabinoid most associated with nighttime wind-down. Our Live Resin CBN Gummies pair CBN with a small amount of THC for a fuller effect, which is the combination most of the anecdotal support points to rather than CBN alone. The CBD Sleep Gummies lead with CBD alongside CBN for people who want a lighter touch, and the CBN Tincture suits anyone who wants to control the dose drop by drop or take a small amount if they wake in the night. All three have a public certificate of analysis, and all three contain THC, so they will produce a positive drug test result. None of them is a treatment for a sleep disorder; they are wellness products people fold into an evening routine. If a persistent sleep problem is disrupting your life, start with a doctor, not a gummy.
Made for the Evening
CBN-forward, lab-tested, and honest about what it is. Subscribe and save 15% on your first order.
The Reddit comments quoted in this article are the opinions and personal experiences of their individual authors and do not constitute medical advice or claims about TribeTokes products. Cannabis is not a treatment for insomnia or any sleep disorder, and TribeTokes products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Sleep products containing Delta 9 THC, Delta 8 THC, THCa, or HHC will produce a positive result on standard drug tests. Talk to a healthcare provider about persistent sleep problems or before changing any prescribed medication. Must be 21 or older to purchase. If you are concerned about your substance use, the SAMHSA National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) provides free, confidential support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.