Binge Drinking Tied to Insomnia Symptoms in Older Adults

A new study links frequent binge drinking with insomnia symptoms in older adults, according to a news release.

"It was somewhat surprising that frequent binge drinking (more than 2 binge drinking days per week, on average), but not occasional binge drinking (more than zero, but less than 2 binge drinking days per week, on average) had a significant association with self-reported insomnia symptoms," lead author Sarah Canham, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in Drug Dependence Epidemiology, John Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health in Baltimore, Md, said in a press statement.

To prove the finding, a study was conducted on 4,970 adults who belonged to the age group of 55 and above. The data was taken from the 2004 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. The participants reported having taken alcohol and completed a questionnaire on binge drinking and insomnia. Apart from this, they also mentioned the number of days they had four or more drinks on one occasion in the past three months.

The researchers used this data to calculate the mean number of binge drinking days per week. The frequency of having trouble sleeping, waking too early, and feeling tired in the morning was also reported by the participants. The person was considered to have insomnia symptoms if the frequency of all these symptoms were greater.

The researchers noticed that 26.2 percent of the participants had two or less binge drinking days per week, and 3.1 percent had consumed alcohol more than two days per week.

Those who binged on an average of more than two days a week were 84 percent more likely to have insomnia symptoms when compared to non-binge drinkers.

The study was published in the journal SLEEP.