Binge Drinking Tied to Insomnia, Study Reveals

A new study finds that for older people there appears to be a clear link between binge drinking and insomnia. Researchers found adults ages 55 and older who binged on average more than two days a week had an 84 percent greater odds of reporting an insomnia symptom compared with non-binge drinkers.

According to the authors, this is the first study to their knowledge that examines binge drinking (four or more drinks) and its association with insomnia symptoms in older adults.

Results show that overall, 26.2 percent of participants had two or less binge drinking days per week, on average, and 3.1 percent had more than two days per week, on average. Adjustment for demographic variables, medical conditions, and elevated depressive symptoms were made for participants.

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

Insomnia is not the only risk. This report comes on the heels of 2012 research, which found that adults 65 and older who binge drink at least twice a month are two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer cognitive and memory declines, compared with seniors who don’t binge drink, according to research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

For more about binge drinking, visit http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/alcohol/seniors-who-binge-drink-more-likely-to-suffer-cognitive-decline.