Study: 1 in 5 youths turn to alcohol and cannabis to sleep

The primary reason 20% of young people use cannabis and alcohol is to get to sleep, according to a recent study. Of the 1,473 respondents in the study, with a mean age of 24, 22.4% used cannabis to sleep, and 7.2% used alcohol to sleep. Among those who used cannabis in the past year, 41.4% used it to sleep. Among those using alcohol in the past year, 8.6% used it to sleep. Among those who used both substances in the past year, 42.1% used cannabis to sleep, 10.9% used alcohol to sleep, and 7.1% used both substances to sleep. Data came from the 2022‐2023 Monitoring the Future (MTF) Panel Study collected from adults ages 19 to 30. MTF is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and annually surveys nationally representative samples of 12th‐grade students. A subsample from each cohort is selected for the MTF Panel, with participation starting at age 19 or 20, and then biennially through age 29 or 30. The response rate was 51.5% of active participants and 34.5% of all selected 12th graders. Women were more likely than men to use cannabis for sleep. Black respondents were more likely than White respondents to use alcohol to sleep. The researchers concluded that raising clinicians' awareness about the common intersection of substance use and sleep problems among young adults should be used for screening and offering interventions for these health risks. “Cannabis and Alcohol Use to Initiate Sleep Among Young Adults” is by Megan E. Patrick, Ph.D. and colleagues, was published online October 13 in JAMA Pediatrics , and was funded by NIDA