Many Young Adults Use Cannabis or Alcohol to Get to Sleep

TUESDAY, Oct. 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) — More than one in five young adults report using cannabis or alcohol to get to sleep, according to a research letter published online Oct. 13 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Megan E. Patrick, Ph.D., from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined national data on cannabis and alcohol use for sleep during young adulthood. The analysis included data from 1,473 participants (mean age, 24.5 years) in the 2022-2023 Monitoring the Future Panel Study.

The researchers found that the weighted prevalence of using cannabis and/or alcohol to get to sleep was 22.4 percent (18.3 percent used cannabis to sleep and 7.2 percent used alcohol to sleep). The percentage using cannabis or alcohol to sleep was higher among those reporting use in the past 12 months (cannabis, 41.4 percent; alcohol, 8.6 percent). Of those reporting use of both substances in the past 12 months, 42.1 percent used cannabis to sleep, 10.9 percent used alcohol to sleep, and 7.1 percent used both substances to sleep. Using cannabis to sleep was more likely among those reporting daily or near-daily cannabis use (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 3.58) and female or another gender identity (AOR, 1.99 or 4.18, respectively). Using alcohol to sleep was associated with daily or near-daily alcohol use (AOR, 3.31) and Black race (AOR, 3.03).

“Raising clinicians” awareness about the common intersection of substance use and sleep problems among young adults is important for screening and developing and offering clinical interventions for these critical health risk behaviors,” the authors write.

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