Insomnia and hazardous drinking are so closely intertwined that estimates suggest at least one-third, and as many as 91%, of people who have a hard time with sleep also misuse alcohol.
A new study suggests that perceived stress and depression factor into the relationship between the two conditions – perhaps not a surprise. But because the relationship between insomnia and heavy drinking goes in both directions, the influence of stress or depression depends on which condition came first, the analysis found.
“We were most interested in how insomnia leads to drinking, and we found that seems to occur primarily through stress. But when we switched pathways, it appeared that drinking primarily led to insomnia through depression,” said Jessica Weafer, senior author of the study and associate professor of