I've experienced what you're describing, and have observed it in friends. It's usually indicative of heightened anxiety levels, due to the THC.

THC itself is certainly prone to triggering incredible amounts of anxiety, especially in the high-concentrations found in modern weed. In the quest for increased potency, many strains have been heavily modified to have the highest THC content possible, sometimes up to even 50x normal levels.

THC is only part of the equation, though. The "other" (there are many, but these two are primarily what people care about) cannabinoid, CBD, is linked to the 'calming' and 'pain relieving' effects associated with marijuana.

I would suggest trying to find a strain with a very high CBD:THC ratio before giving up completely. From personal experience, high CBD strains alleviate the anxiety I used to experience whenever all I could find was high-THC sativas.

Strains are usually split into three categories, sativa, hybrid, and indica. You can research these more yourself if interested, but usually indica strains are more associated with 'sleep' and 'relaxation', whereas sativas typically cause a more energetic head high.

tl;dr You might want to try a high CBD indica/hybrid strain before giving up on marijuana alltogether. The effect profiles are dramatically different between different strains, and a high CBD indica strain could be life changing when it comes to pursuing consistent sleep.

This may be more than you wanted to know, but as somebody who has also struggled with often debilitating sleep issues and has tried __every__ sleep aid, marijuana allows me to sleep better than anything non-dependency forming.

The only sleep-aids I've found to be more effective than marijuana are GABAergic drugs such as benzodiazepines (klonopin) or z-drugs (ambien). The main problem with these is that they are HEAVILY dependency forming, and once dependency is developed, can actually straight up kill you from withdrawals. They are incredibly powerful tools which will certainly allow to you sleep, but considering their addictive potential should be relied upon as a last resort. For short-term treatment of insomnia however, they can be literally life saving.

Thanks for the advice. I too have tried ambien, rozerem, and trazodone, and they have all lost effectiveness within a few days.

I've been considering giving CBD oil a shot, I've heard that it's helpful from a friend. I guess it's time to pull the trigger.