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Study Finds Link Between Teen Sleep Deprivation and Later Binge Drinking
This entry was posted on January 28, 2015.
An alarming new study based on information collected in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health has discovered a link between being sleep-deprived as a teen and the potential for developing drinking problems later in life. The study compiled data collected from over 6,000 teens between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, and found that those who reported having difficulty in either falling asleep or staying asleep were fifty percent more likely to binge drink, while fourteen percent were more likely to drive while under the influence. The study was reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
The study was not limited to those who had sleep disorders. Some of the teens in the survey simply acknowledged that they didn’t get enough sleep, while others were diagnosed with illnesses such as insomnia. The group first started being followed in the mid 1990s, and by the time they had entered college or had achieved college age, the data collected in those years was compared to the earlier surveys, and that was how the correlation between earlier sleeplessness and alcohol-related issues was discovered.
According to Maria Wong, an Idaho State University psychologist, there are a number of issues related to alcohol, and sleeplessness during the teenaged years is certainly not the only contributing factor, as peer pressure and genetic variables are known to have a powerful association with the problem. But it is important to be aware of sleep deprivation’s role, as it is one of the few factors that control can be exercised over. “This sudy shows that sleep issues can actually precede and even predict alcohol use later on,” she said. “If we can make sure teens have enough sleep, we can help them make good choices.”
An alarming new study based on information collected in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health has discovered a link between being sleep-deprived as a teen and the potential for developing drinking problems later in life
A closer analysis of the study, as well as of polls done on adolescents and their parents, indicate that almost half of all teens are not getting the amount of sleep that health experts say that they should be. At fourteen to sixteen years old, they should be getting between eight and ten hours of sleep per night. According to Wong, the analysis of the information shows that the impact of sleep deprivation on future teen binge drinking is statistically remarkable. In fact, for every extra hour of sleep that the age group gets, the risk of binge drinking when they are older drops by ten percent.
The potential for irresponsible binge drinking and driving while intoxicated is not the only negative impact that have been linked to teen sleep deprivation. Other studies have shown that lack of sleep has a direct association with lower academic performance, athletic performance, memory skills, and medical problems such as obesity, depression, and risk of diabetes.
