Evening intake of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine: night-to-night associations with sleep duration and continuity among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Sleep Study

Christine E Spadola; Na Guo; Dayna A Johnson; Tamar Sofer; Suzanne M Bertisch; Chandra L Jackson; Michael Rueschman; Murray A Mittleman; James G Wilson; Susan Redline

doi:10.1093/sleep/zsz136

Evening intake of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine: night-to-night associations with sleep duration and continuity among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Sleep Study

Sleep. 2019 Oct 21;42(11):zsz136. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsz136.

Authors

Christine E Spadola¹, Na Guo^{2

3}, Dayna A Johnson⁴, Tamar Sofer^{2

3}, Suzanne M Bertisch^{2

3}, Chandra L Jackson^{5

6}, Michael Rueschman², Murray A Mittleman⁷, James G Wilson⁸, Susan Redline^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL.
² Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
³ Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
⁵ Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC.
⁶ Intramural Program, National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
⁸ Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS.

Abstract

Study objectives: We examined the night-to-night associations of evening use of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine with actigraphically estimated sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and wake after sleep onset (WASO) among a large cohort of African American adults.

Methods: Participants in the Jackson Heart Sleep Study underwent wrist actigraphy for an average of 6.7 nights and completed concurrent daily sleep diary assessments to record any consumption of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine within 4 hours of bedtime. Linear mixed-effect models were fit and adjusted for age, sex, educational attainment, body mass index, depression, anxiety, stress, and having work/school the next day.

Results: Eligible participants (n = 785) were an average of 63.7 years (SD: 10.6), and were predominantly female (67.9%). There were 5164 days of concurrent actigraphy and sleep diary data. Evening alcohol use was associated with that night's lower sleep efficiency (-0.98% [95% CI: -1.67% to -0.29%], p = 0.005), but not with WASO or sleep duration. Evening nicotine use was associated with that night's lower sleep efficiency [1.74% (95% CI: -2.79 to -0.68), p = 0.001] and 6.09 minutes higher WASO ([95% CI: 0.82 to 11.35], p = 0.02), but was not associated with sleep duration. Evening caffeine use was not associated with any of the sleep parameters.

Conclusion: Nicotine and alcohol use within 4 hours of bedtime were associated with increased sleep fragmentation in the associated night, even after controlling for multiple potential confounders. These findings support the importance of sleep health recommendations that promote the restriction of evening alcohol and nicotine use to improve sleep continuity.

Keywords: African Americans; Jackson Heart Study; actigraphy; alcohol; caffeine; nicotine; sleep; sleep efficiency; sleep health; sleep hygiene; total sleep time; wake after sleep onset.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Actigraphy
Aged
Alcohol Drinking / physiopathology*
Black or African American*
Caffeine*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Nicotine*
Polysomnography
Sleep / physiology*

Substances

Caffeine
Nicotine

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding