Research & Resources

Researchers used six annual assessments from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study to examine whether multiple sleep characteristics in any year predicted alcohol and cannabis use the following year. The sample included 831 NCANDA participants, baseline age 12–21 years. Sleep variables included circadian preference, sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, the timing of midsleep (weekday/weekend), and sleep duration (weekday/weekend). Greater eveningness (i.e., staying up late at night and sleeping late in the morning), more daytime sleepiness, later weekend sleep timing, and shorter sleep duration (weekday/weekend) all predicted more severe binge drinking the following year. Greater eveningness predicted a greater likelihood of cannabis use the following year. Some associations (e.g., greater eveningness and shorter weekend sleep duration) predicted severe binge drinking only in female participants, and middle/high school versus post-high school adolescents were more vulnerable to sleep-related risk for cannabis use. Researchers suggested the need for greater attention to sleep/circadian characteristics as potential risk factors for youth substance use that could be used to inform new avenues to prevention and intervention.

This paper, “Self-reported sleep and circadian characteristics predict alcohol and cannabis use: A longitudinal analysis of the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence Study,” was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and experimental research.