Sleep disturbances relate to problematic alcohol use via effortful control and negative emotionality.

Background: Sleep disturbances, such as insomnia, are highly prevalent among college students. Alcohol use (and other substance use) peaks during emerging adulthood (18-25 years old). Short sleep duration and sleep disturbances have been shown to be a risk marker for the development of problematic alcohol use. Putative mechanisms that account for this relationship include facets of executive functioning and emotion regulation.

Methods: In a large cross-sectional sample of college students (n = 5074), we examined the relationship between insomnia symptoms and problematic alcohol use (negative consequences and alcohol use disorder symptoms) via negative emotionality (stress, depression, anxiety, social anxiety) and effortful control (activation, attentional, and inhibitory) using structural equation modeling with bootstrapping (CFI = 0.979, TLI = 0.971, RMSEA = 0.038 [90% CI: 0.035, 0.041], SRMR = 0.045).

Results: Insomnia symptoms were associated with higher negative emotionality (β = 0.539, p < 0.001) and lower effortful control (β = -0.283, p < 0.001); negative emotionality (β = 0.207, p < 0.001) and effortful control (β = -0.267, p < 0.001) were each related to problematic alcohol use. The relationship between insomnia and problematic alcohol use (β = 0.173, p < 0.001) dropped to nonsignificance when controlling for negative emotionality and effortful control (β = -0.014, p = 0.698).

Conclusions: Although the cross-sectional nature of the data prohibits causal inference, these indirect effects support the plausibility that facets of executive functioning and emotion regulation account for the relationship between insomnia symptoms and problematic alcohol use. Understanding the relationships among these factors can help guide the development and tailoring of effective interventions that target sleep-alcohol use dynamics.