What a 2022 At-Home Study Set Out to Learn About CBD, CBN and Sleep
In 2022, People Science began recruiting U.S. adults for an at-home study examining whether a THC-free product containing cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) was associated with changes in sleep. The project was designed to combine participants’ daily reports with data from wearable sleep trackers rather than rely solely on testing in a sleep laboratory.
The planned study sought at least 44 participants aged 21 and older. After completing a screening questionnaire, eligible volunteers were expected to record baseline information for one week, use the study product nightly for two weeks and complete brief assessments through a smartphone app. Participants supplied their own compatible wearable device or used one capable of recording sleep-related measures. They were offered the product and compensation for their time.
The project was intended to measure outcomes such as sleep duration, sleep quality and the time required to fall asleep. Because the product contained CBD and CBN but no THC, it was positioned as a way to study non-intoxicating cannabinoids without the psychoactive effects associated with THC. However, the publicly available description does not establish that the study was randomized or placebo-controlled, so it would not by itself be able to show that any observed changes were caused by the product.
Interest in cannabinoid-based sleep products has grown, but the evidence remains mixed and depends heavily on the cannabinoid, dose, formulation and study design. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial published in 2023, 29 adults with insomnia received either placebo or a medicinal cannabis oil containing 10 mg/ml THC and 15 mg/ml CBD. The researchers reported improvements in some sleep measures and higher midnight melatonin levels during the active-treatment phase. Because the oil contained both THC and CBD, those findings cannot be used to predict the effects of a THC-free CBD-and-CBN product. The study is available through PubMed.
Other research has examined CBN more directly. A registered double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluated CBN with and without CBD, and its results were later published in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. That work reported a reduction in nighttime awakenings and overall sleep disturbance with 20 mg of CBN, but the primary measure of sleep quality did not reach conventional statistical significance. The study can be reviewed through its ClinicalTrials.gov record.
More recent evidence also illustrates why broad claims about “cannabis for sleep” should be treated cautiously. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized studies found that cannabinoids, particularly non-CBD formulations, were associated with better self-reported sleep quality overall, while CBD-only treatments did not show a statistically significant benefit. The authors also noted substantial variation among the studies, making it difficult to identify the best compound, dose or treatment duration. The analysis is indexed in PubMed.
At-home research can make it easier to collect sleep data under normal living conditions and may capture information that is missed during a single night in a laboratory. Wearables, however, are not equivalent to polysomnography—the clinical reference method for measuring sleep—and consumer studies can be affected by self-selection, expectations and incomplete reporting.
The People Science project was therefore best understood as an exploratory effort to generate real-world data, not as proof that CBD and CBN improve sleep. No peer-reviewed publication or authoritative registry record clearly linking published results to this specific 2022 People Science study was identified. Anyone considering CBD or another cannabinoid for sleep should also review potential drug interactions and other safety concerns; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s consumer guidance notes that CBD products can carry risks and are not established treatments for insomnia.
