Energy drink intake is associated with insomnia and decreased daytime functioning in young adult females

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association between energy drink (ED) use and sleep-related disturbances in a population-based sample of young adults from the Raine Study. Design: Analysis of cross-sectional data obtained from self-administered questionnaires to assess ED use and sleep disturbance (Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ-10) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Symptoms Questionnaire–Insomnia (PSSQ-I)). Regression modelling was used to estimate the effect of ED use on sleep disturbances. All models adjusted for various potential confounders. Setting: Western Australia. Participants: Males and females, aged 22 years, from Raine Study Gen2–22 year follow-up. Results: Of the 1115 participants, 66 % were never/rare users (i.e. <once/month) of ED, 17·0 % were occasional users (i.e. >once/month to <once/week) and 17 % were frequent users (≥once/week). Compared with females, a greater proportion of males used ED occasionally (19 % v. 15 %) or frequently (24 % v. 11 %). Among females, frequent ED users experienced significantly higher symptoms of daytime sleepiness (FOSQ-10: β = 0·93, 95 % CI 0·32, 1·54, P = 0·003) and were five times more likely to experience insomnia (PSSQ-I: OR = 5·10, 95 % CI 1·81, 14·35, P = 0·002) compared with never/rare users. No significant associations were observed in males for any sleep outcomes. Conclusions: We found a positive association between ED use and sleep disturbances in young adult females. Given the importance of sleep for overall health, and ever-increasing ED use, intervention strategies are needed to curb ED use in young adults, particularly females. Further research is needed to determine causation and elucidate reasons for gender-specific findings.

Energy Drinks Consumption Associated with Emotional and Behavioural Problems via Lack of Sleep and Skipped Breakfast among Adolescents

“…Adolescents who consumed a higher amount of EDs slept less and reported more emotional and behavioural problems. Previous studies confirmed our findings that excessive use of EDs was associated with reduced and insufficient sleep duration [ 20 , 21 , 23 , 50 ] or even insomnia [ 24 ]. The association between insufficient sleep duration and emotional and behavioural problems has also been confirmed by several cross-sectional, experimental studies, as well as by systematic reviews [ 25 , 26 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 51 , 52 , 53 ].…”

“…Arrows were added to the parallel mediation models in Figures 1 and 2 to illustrate the mediation, expected and tested direction of the associations presented. All analyses were performed in SPSS v. 23 for Windows (IBM Corporation, New York, NY, USA). method, and bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the indirect effect of ab was provided as a test of the indirect effect [47].…”

“…Arrows were added to the parallel mediation models in Figures 1 and 2 to illustrate the mediation, expected and tested direction of the associations presented. All analyses were performed in SPSS v. 23 for Windows (IBM Corporation, New York, NY, USA). All presented effects are unstandardised; an is the effect of ED consumption on mediators; bn is effect of mediators on behavioural problems; c' is the direct effect of ED consumption on behavioural problems, and c is the total effect of ED consumption on behavioural problems.…”

“…High ED intake is also associated with unhealthy behavior, such as reduced and insufficient sleep and breakfast skipping in adolescents [ 7 , 17 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Evidence shows that 30 to 50% of adolescents sleep less than recommended 8 h [ 25 , 26 , 27 ], and the prevalence of sleep problems varies between 10 to 20% in adolescents [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Relationship between the frequency of energy drinks consumption and insomnia, depression, alcohol abuse, socioeconomic status and religion among the higher education students of Republic of Bashkortostan

“…Again according to the data analysis, it is reasonable to say that the consump- tion of EDs is a widespread phenomenon affecting different age groups and various segments of the population. The frequency of consumption of EDs has been found to be statistically significantly associated with insomnia, also reported by several studies (Marmorstein, 2017;Trapp et al, 2020) and the risk of alcohol abuse, mentioned by others (Marmorstein, 2017;Meredith et al, 2016;Arria et al, 2011). We identified the level of depression as not being related to the amount of EDs consumed by the respondents; the same result was shown in the study of Arria et al (2011), but there are also a number of studies in the literature showing a relationship between depression and the consumption of EDs (Evren & Evren, 2015;Azagba et al, 2014;Hofmeister et al, 2010).…”