People who have trouble sleeping, even teenagers, may turn to alcohol for help. And, while alcohol can help a person fall asleep, it causes other sleep problems.
Alcohol is known to interfere with the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, thus causing the sleeper to feel even less rested after awakening. ...
[Sara] Pieters and her team of researchers found that there was an association between earlier use of alcohol among the teens who tended to stay up later and who had problems such as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and who also perceived themselves as more tired.[Source: PsychCentral]
Though Pieters’ research showed a connection between sleep problems and alcohol, it wasn’t able to determine the causal relationship – whether sleep problems lead to alcohol use or alcohol use causes sleep problems.
Labels: alcohol abuse, sleep, teen
Posted By: Aspen Education Group