Many people now reach for a cannabis-derived supplement instead of a prescription pill, trusting that a plant-based option must be the safer choice.
The shelves are full of them, and the marketing is reassuring.
New research from the University of Connecticut points to a catch. Mice given repeated doses of cannabinol, better known as CBN, developed tolerance and showed physical signs of withdrawal when the compound was stopped.
CBN is the active ingredient in a growing wave of over-the-counter sleep gummies.
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The findings were published in the November 2026 issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The study was done in mice, not people. Human data on long-term CBN use is thin, and the authors say so plainly.
But the biological argument is not far-fetched. CBN is a chemical cousin of THC, the compound in cannabis that produces the high, and it acts on the same CB1 receptor in the brain.
In the UConn experiments, mice trained to recognize THC's effects responded to CBN in the same way.
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What the researchers actually saw in the lab
Mice were given CBN twice a day for three days. By the end, the animals had become less responsive to the compound, which is the hallmark of tolerance.
When the drug was stopped, the mice developed head twitching and paw fluttering.
The authors compare the movements to the shaking that can accompany drug withdrawal in people.
Steven Kinsey, a professor in UConn's Elisabeth DeLuca School of Nursing, said in a statement to UConn Today that CBN may still turn out to have therapeutic value.
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But until more is known about doses and long-term effects, his message for consumers was simple. "Buyer beware."
Why the mechanism matters outside the lab
CBN is formed when THC breaks down in storage. It binds to the same CB1 receptor in the brain that THC uses. That receptor is also at the center of cannabis dependence in humans.
That overlap is the reason the UConn team expected to find tolerance and withdrawal signs if they looked for them.
Over-the-counter CBN products are already a growing category. The compound shows up in sleep gummies, tinctures and capsules sold without a prescription in US stores and online.
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The products are marketed as mild, plant-based and nonintoxicating, often alongside melatonin or CBD. Many of those claims rely on small human trials or on the marketing of related cannabis extracts.
Welltica.com has looked before at how cannabis as a sleep aid can lose its edge in regular users. The pattern lines up with what the UConn team saw in their mice.
What a sleep doctor would reach for first
If a nightly sleep aid has become hard to stop, the standard advice is to taper gradually with a clinician rather than quit cold turkey. Switching to another sedative is not the usual next step.
For long-term insomnia, the treatment with the strongest evidence is not a supplement at all.
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The American College of Physicians recommends cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, known as CBT-I, as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia in adults.
CBT-I combines sleep education with short behavioral exercises that retrain the body's sleep timing.
It can be delivered in a few sessions in primary care or through self-guided programs.
Anyone taking a CBN product nightly and worried about dependence should talk to their doctor before stopping, especially if they also use a prescription sleep medication.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.