Sleep regularity and treatment for alcohol use disorder
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is often accompanied by comorbid conditions, including disturbances that affect sleep regularity and timing. To better understand these disturbances and the impact they have on treatment for AUD, researchers invented a sleep regularity measure by calculating how likely someone was to be asleep at the same point in time 24 hours apart. They applied this metric to a sample of participants in inpatient treatment for AUD and found that sleep regularity improved over the course of treatment. Their results also showed that participants who started with poor sleep regularity improved the most, and patients with mood disorders improved the least. Patients with better sleep regularity also took fewer naps and had less physical or mental exhaustion. The study, “Sleep regularity index in patients with alcohol dependence: Daytime napping and mood disorders as correlates of interest,” was funded through the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center research program. It was published in the journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
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