Have trouble sleeping as an adult? Your extra-curricular activities in middle school and high school may have something to do with it.

Using cannabis at a young age might have long-term effects on sleep, according to a new study published in the academic journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

The study’s results indicate one of the developmental outcomes of early-onset cannabis use can be insomnia, as well as other sleep disturbances.

In a sample of 1,656 adult twin participants (56 per cent of whom were female) at an average of 25.79 years of age, “linear mixed effects models” were employed to study the influence of retrospectively assessed age of onset for regular cannabis consumption on adult sleep duration. The study was controlled for factors such as sex, substance abuse, and mood disorders.

“Twin analyses provided genetic and environmental variance estimates as well as insights into the association and potential casual relationships between these traits,” researchers noted.

The results indicated participants who began consuming cannabis regularly at a younger age experienced significant sleep disturbances when compared to those who consumed later or not at all.

“Earlier age of onset for regular cannabis use was significantly associated with shorter adult sleep duration on both weekdays and weekends,” researchers wrote.

“Additive genetics significantly contributed to the onset of regular cannabis use and adult weekend sleep duration. We found evidence of a significant genetic correlation (between these two traits and our best fitting model) that was consistent with early onset of regular cannabis use causing shorter adult weekend sleep duration.”

“One of the major caveats of the study would be that, like other epidemiological studies, it doesn’t allow us to make definitive causal claims.”

The study’s authors said the results are preliminary and that more research is necessary to confirm the findings. Even so, the results could be significant.

“One of the major caveats of the study would be that, like other epidemiological studies, it doesn’t allow us to make definitive causal claims. Future studies need to use objective sleep measures such as actigraphy or accelerometers as they provide better measures of sleep duration and activity. Furthermore, future studies should look at the amount, frequency and exact concentration (THC versus CBD) of cannabis used,” lead author Evan Winiger of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado Boulder told PsyPost.

“I think as cannabis becomes federally legal and more studies are conducted, we will see more evidence of early, frequent and continuous cannabis use being associated with maladaptive sleep outcomes,” Winiger added.