Struggling to sleep and drinking too much often go hand in hand, and a new study is shedding light on why.
Researchers have found that stress and depression play key roles in the back-and-forth relationship between insomnia and heavy alcohol use.
The findings, recently published in the journal Alcohol, may help inform better treatments in the future.
Past research has shown that as many as 91% of people who have trouble sleeping also misuse alcohol.
But the connection isn’t one-way—insomnia can lead to heavy drinking, and heavy drinking can cause sleep problems. What hasn’t been clear is how stress and depression factor into that relationship.
Researchers from The Ohio State University and the University of Kentucky analyzed data from 405 adults who reported both poor sleep and frequent heavy drinking.
Participants answered questions about their sleep habits, drinking history, stress levels, and symptoms of depression. The study aimed to figure out how stress and depression might influence the link between insomnia and alcohol use.
The results showed that when insomnia came first, stress was the main factor that pushed people toward drinking more.
In other words, people who couldn’t sleep often felt stressed, and that stress led them to drink heavily—perhaps as a coping mechanism.
On the flip side, when drinking came first, depression explained why people started having sleep problems. Those who drank heavily were more likely to experience depressive symptoms like sadness, hopelessness, or loneliness, which then disrupted their sleep.
Jessica Weafer, senior author of the study, says this could have important implications for treatment.
If someone with insomnia is under a lot of stress, helping them manage that stress might prevent them from turning to alcohol. Likewise, for someone who drinks heavily and has trouble sleeping, treating depression might be a better approach.
Lead author Justin Verlinden adds that while stress and depression are closely related, they are not the same. Stress usually involves feeling overwhelmed by life’s demands, while depression involves deeper emotional struggles.
The researchers found that each plays a different role depending on which issue—sleep or drinking—comes first.
The study doesn’t track how these problems evolve over time, but the research team is collecting more data over a 12-month period to see how insomnia, stress, and depression interact in the long run.
Ultimately, this research helps connect the dots between two common and often connected struggles—sleeplessness and alcohol misuse—and shows how emotions like stress and depression could be driving the cycle.
If you care about wellness, please read studies about how alcohol affects liver health and disease progression, and even one drink a day could still harm blood pressure health.
For more health information, please see studies that your age may decide whether alcohol is good or bad for you, and people over 40 need to prevent dangerous alcohol/drug interactions.
Source: The Ohio State University.
