Research & Resources

This study sought to better understand how sleep is associated with alcohol consumption among college students. The study tested whether the prior night’s sleep duration and current-day fatigue were associated with being around others who were drinking the prior night. The study also tested whether the prior night’s sleep duration and current-day fatigue were associated with alcohol consumption the prior night. Participants were 540 college student drinkers. Participants reported daily for 30 days yearly, for up to 4 years, on aspects of their sleep, their own alcohol use, and the perceived drinking of others in an intensive longitudinal burst design. On evenings following higher-than-average sleep duration or greater-than-average daytime fatigue, participants were less likely to report that they were with others who were drinking. In addition, experiencing greater-than-average daytime fatigue was associated with a lower likelihood of consuming any alcohol and lower levels of alcohol consumption at the daily level. These findings indicate that daytime fatigue might be protective against alcohol consumption through both selection and behavior moderation. Researchers proposed that the results may be useful in the development of interventions to prevent heavy drinking among college students.

This paper, “Too tired to drink? Daily associations of sleep duration and fatigue with own and others’ alcohol consumption,” was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and published in the journal Psychology of addictive behaviors.