Exploring the relationship between sleep patterns, alcohol and other substances consumption in young adults: Insights from wearables and Mobile surveys in the National Consortium on alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in adolescence (NCANDA) cohort.

Introduction: The use of psychotropic substances has negative short- and long-term health outcomes, including complex direct and indirect effects on sleep and sleep-cardiovascular function. Here, we investigate daily relationships between self-reported substance use and objective measures of sleep and sleep-related heart rate (HR) in community-dwelling young adults.

Methods: Fifty-five healthy young adults (M = 23.1 ± 2.29 y, 30 female) in the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study completed a 28-day ecological momentary assessment protocol, including remote sleep and HR measurements via Fitbit devices, as well as daily app-based self-reports of alcohol and other substance use.

Results: A total of 1459 days of data were collected. Caffeine was the most frequent substance used, followed by alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, and other drugs. The analysis showed that substance use was associated with delays in sleep start and end time, reduced sleep duration and efficiency, and increased wake after sleep onset. Increases in sleep heart rate were associated with prior-day alcohol use.

Discussion: Substance use negatively influences sleep and sleep HR. These preliminary data highlight the potential value of using remote multimodal data collection to investigate the daily relationships between substance use and sleep in young adults, in an ecological setting.