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Teenagers suffer from sleep disorders resort to alcohol consumption

Written by: David Castillo on June 23rd, 2010

Teenagers suffer from sleep disorders resort to alcohol consumption | read this item

Sleep disorders are common among teenagers in their puberty, and they result to alcohol to get sleep, suggests a new study.

Alcohol has pharmacological properties disrupt rapid eye movement and other restorative stages of sleep.

“Pubertal timing has been found to predict adolescent alcohol use, with early maturing adolescents being more likely to drink,” explained Sara Pieters, a doctoral student and a corresponding author of the study. “Adolescent alcohol use has also been linked to sleep problems, such as trouble falling asleep, maintaining sleep, and perceived tiredness. This study combines these two separate lines of research by examining the impact of pubertal maturation on the relation between sleep problems and alcohol use.”

The study obtained data from 431 adolescents—aged 11-14 years old—by way of questionnaire data. The researchers found that puberty has links to sleep-related problems and evening tendencies, like sleeping later. This results in early alcohol abuse for adolescent, who get sleepier with alcohol.

“Our advice to clinicians would be to better screen for sleep problems when adolescents seem to have other psychosocial or behavioral problems,” advised Pieters. “To parents it is recommended that they monitor their offspring’s sleep, keeping in mind that sleep has an effect on so many other health domains, including risky behaviors such as alcohol consumption.”

The results of the study will be published in the 2010 issue of “of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.”

Source: sify news