ArticleSleep health2019
Use of alcohol as a sleep aid, unhealthy drinking behaviors, and sleeping pill use among women veterans.
Article in Sleep health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- An Evidence Map of the Women Veterans' Health Literature, 2016 to 2023: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- Leveraging Ecological Momentary Assessment to Examine Bi-directional Associations Between Sleep Quality, Adolescent/Young Adult Alcohol Craving and Use.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2023Trial
- Insomnia predicts treatment engagement and symptom change: a secondary analysis of a web-based CBT intervention for veterans with PTSD symptoms and hazardous alcohol use.Translational behavioral medicine · 2022Trial
- "Sleep Is Not Getting the Attention It Deserves": A Qualitative Study of Patient and Provider Views on Sleep Management in the Veterans Health Administration.Medical care · 2025Article
- Religiosity and the relationship between sexual trauma, alcohol use, and sleep quality: a moderated mediation model.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2025Article
- Article
- Association between alcohol consumption and sleep traits: observational and mendelian randomization studies in the UK biobank.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Observational
- Article
- Bidirectional links between sleep and pain among heavy-drinking veterans with insomnia.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2024Article
- Sleep Modulates Alcohol Toxicity inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- The relationship between sleep and physical activity: the moderating role of daily alcohol consumption.Sleep · 2021Article
- Sleep apnea in women veterans: results of a national survey of VA health care users.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesSleep complaints, such as insomnia and sleep disturbances caused by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are more common among women veterans than nonveteran women. Alcohol use among some women may be partially motivated by the desire to improve sleep. This study evaluated rates of alcohol use as a sleep aid among women veterans and explored the relationship between alcohol use to aid sleep and drinking frequency and sleeping pill use. DESIGN AND
settingNational cross-sectional population-based residential mail survey on sleep and other symptoms.
participantsRandom sample of women veteran VA users who completed a postal survey (N = 1533).
interventionsNone. MEASUREMENTS: The survey included demographics, Insomnia Severity Index, Primary Care PTSD screen, and items on alcohol use frequency (days/week), use of prescription or over-the-counter sleep medications, and use of alcohol as a sleep aid (yes/no for each item) over the past month.
resultsA total of 14.3% of respondents endorsed using alcohol to aid sleep. Logistic regression models showed more severe insomnia (odds ratio [OR] = 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-1.06) and PTSD (OR = 2.11; 95% CI: 1.49-2.97) were associated with increased odds of using alcohol to aid sleep. Alcohol use to aid sleep was associated with increased odds of daily drinking (OR = 8.46; 95% CI: 4.00-17.87) and prescription (OR = 1.79; 95% CI: 1.34-2.38) and over-the-counter sleep aid use (OR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.12-2.11).
conclusionsInsomnia and PTSD may increase risk for using alcohol as a sleep aid, which may increase risk for unhealthy drinking and for mixing alcohol with sleep medications. Findings highlight the need for alcohol use screening in the context of insomnia and for delivery of cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia to women veterans with insomnia.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.