Alcohol drinking patterns, race, sex affect sleep duration

Sleep duration varies substantially by alcohol consumption, race and ethnicity, and sex, according to data presented at SLEEP 2016.

The researchers concluded that men who reported moderate or heavy drinking were more likely to be short sleeps. However, they found that long sleep was more common among heavy drinkers, but only in black men and white women.

“Behavioral correlates like alcohol drinking patterns and sleep track together in a complex manner and could act in concert to exacerbate health disparities by race and sex,” Chandra L. Jackson, PhD, MS, of the Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Science Center, in Boston, said in a press release. “Investigating racial disparities could provide insight into the overall alcohol-sleep relationship, susceptibility differences in sleep homeostasis/architecture across groups, and its subsequent impact on health outcomes.”

According to the researchers, racial and ethnic minorities experience poorer health than whites, and differences in alcohol consumption and sleep may contribute to these disparities. To evaluate the effects of alcohol consumption on sleep duration in blacks and whites, Jackson and colleagues used data from 314,134 adults in the National Health Interview Survey from 2004 to 2014.

They applied the direct adjustment method to estimate age-standardized prevalence of sleep duration by alcohol consumption — organized by categories of never, former, moderate and heavy — among black and white men and women, standardizing to the 2010 U.S. Census population.

They estimated race- and sex-specific prevalence ratios for each sleep duration category — ≤ 6, 7, 8, ≥ 9 hours — compared to remaining categories within alcohol-drinking patterns, adjusting for socioeconomic status and other confounders. Interactions between race and alcohol consumption were tested by level of sleep duration for men and women separately.

According to the researchers, moderate drinkers, compared with lifetime abstainers, reported 6 hours or less of sleep among black men (40.8% vs. 29.1%; P < .01), white men (26.4% vs. 23.3%; P < .01), and black women (39% vs. 31.9%; P < .01). There was no difference among black men and women. However, white men (7% vs. 11.1%; P < .01) and women (7.6% vs. 10.3%; P < .01) who reported moderate drinking had a lower rate of receiving 9 hours of sleep or fewer, compared to those who never drink.

In addition, white men who identified as heavy drinkers had a 15% higher rate of receiving 6 hours of sleep or less compared with those who never drink, and black men had a 29% (PR = 1.29 [1.12-1.47]) higher rate. Black men (PR = 1.44 [1.08-1.93]) and white women (PR = 1.22 [1.07-1.38]) who identified has heavy drinkers were more likely to report receiving 9 hours of sleep or more. According to the researchers, race/ethnicity significantly modified the relationship between alcohol and sleep, with the exception being men who reported receiving 8 hours or sleep and women reporting 9 or fewer hours. In addition, black participants generally reported more extreme sleep duration. – by Jason Laday

Disclosure: Healio Family Medicine could not confirm researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.

Reference:

Jackson CL, et al. Abstract 0999. Presented at: SLEEP 2016; June 11-15; Denver.