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Young people who go to bed later drink and smoke more due to their impulsivity (Poll)

Early bird, catch the worm?

  • Yes mister, I caught the worm, I'm an early bird

    Votes: 6 66.7%

  • No monseuir, I sleep all day, party all night, to throw all my problems away

    Votes: 3 33.3%
  • Total voters
    9
Joey

Joey

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Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,801
In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of Surrey and Brunel University London investigated how being an evening type (someone who prefers to stay up late and functions better in the evening) links to impulsivity, anxiety, and substance use. Young people often prefer to stay up late, and those who do are known to be at higher risk of mental health issues and problematic substance use.

To better understand why this is, researchers recruited 191 participants aged between 18-25 years old. Participants were surveyed on their sleeping preference (morning or evening types), their sleep quality, levels of anxiety and impulsivity, and asked about how many cigarettes they smoked and how much alcohol, coffee, and other caffeinated drinks they consumed.

A lab-based computer test was also used to test impulsivity levels. Participants were required to indicate how long they were willing to wait before receiving a hypothetical cash reward. Researchers found that evening types were more impulsive, preferring small immediate rewards over delayed larger ones. These young adult evening types were also more anxious and reported higher alcohol, caffeine and cigarette use compared to their peers who preferred going to bed earlier. Lower sleep quality did not explain these effects; to see what could, researchers used a statistical method known as mediation analysis, which found that higher levels of impulsivity were the link between being an evening type and greater alcohol, caffeine, and cigarette use.

Researchers believe that by understanding what causes young people to smoke and drink more, we can educate them more effectively about risk factors and design strategies to combat problematic substance use.

Dr Simon Evans, Lecturer in Neuroscience at the University of Surrey, said: "Young people who stay up late and claim they function best in the evening are known to have higher alcohol intake, smoke more cigarettes and are at greater risk of mental health issues. What we have found is that their higher levels of substance use are due to their increased impulsivity levels. The consequences of high levels of substance use can be detrimental to long term physical and mental health, and these findings suggest ways we could reduce risky substance use behaviours in young people."
Click to expand...
www.sciencedaily.com

Young people who go to bed later drink and smoke more due to their impulsivity

Young people who prefer to stay up late are more impulsive than their peers who go to bed earlier, which makes them more likely to drink alcohol and smoke.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
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I was definitely a late riser. I had a late bedtime like 11 which I didn't follow as a kid and pulled all nighters every weekend. No wonder I'm a meth head!

This is actually interesting though.
 
Always had a good sleep schedule generally. It’s rare I’ve pulled al nighters unless I’m upset or annoyed. Even when partying I was the first to bed. I could sleep easily after mdma even. My brain just needed sleep.
 
I sleep a lot. APs just wear me out. I go to bed at 630p. Grad school was very little sleep and then courts stripped me. When I take acid I’m sometimes up in bed rolling around. Then when u take cocaine u get the best sleep ever. Unless a binge.
 
I had horrible insomnia since I was 3 or so. I didnt get high to have fun, just to make the panicked insomnia stop.

So, I don't feel I fit into either category. It wasn't impulsivity driving me. It was more a direct result of being stuck with feelings I couldn't handle every night for a couple decades. I considered drugs for years and years before diving in.
 
This article is interesting, that's how I was when I was younger. I can remember many nights staying out until 2am in high school partying and then going to school the next day. I've always noticed when I get clean my sleeping patterns go back to normal and my impulsivity drops, but the second I start staying up late is when I'll make decisions I probably shouldn't.
 
I have life long sleep problems, so it can vary when I go to sleep and when I wake up. But naturally I think I'm very much a morning person.

I love waking up really early.
 
I either fluctuate between 10pm - 6am naturally, or 6am - 2 pm, especially with opioids. Something about waking up in withdrawals at 6am doesn't sit well with me lol. I typically get into pretty strict routines and fall asleep and wake up like clockwork, but right now I'm in the 10pm - 6am cycle and greatly enjoying it. Although, weeks of no sun lately has really started to throw me off a bit.
 
Well, that explains my life from ages 14-34.

~4hours of sleep throughout secondary school.
Heavy drinking, heavy smoking through my 20s after heavy other stuff.

Started sleeping properly only about 5-6 years ago which coincidentally coincides with me becoming less of a degen, though age also has a role, I reckon.

I've always been both though.....late night AND early morning. Throughout my 20s, go to bed at 6 after being high all night; wake up at 9...yes, 3 hours later, feeling fine.
Even now I tend to stay up late on non-work nights but wake up before the sun on work days. Either way, I see the sun rise every day of my life, whether I'm still up or already awake.

Sunrise Champion Crew is a real illness.


There is actually a direct correlation between me cleaning up my sleep health and my smoking rate going down as well as my drinking decreasing and my use of all drugs in general decreasing.
Never really thought of it.....just reckoned it was age and accrued wisdom/not being able to handle it anymore.
 
@SunriseChampion I bet there is a huge correlation between sleep health and healthier drug habits. All that shit goes out the window when using my case.
 
When I started drinking I'd stay up for a day or two fairly regularly. Later on I'd throw drugs into the mix and they'd set my circadian rhythm so I'd get to sleep

EDIT: Yes I get up in the morning, like between 06.00~8.00 (I actually got up at 08.30 this morning, which isn't normal for me). It doesn't affect when I go to bed though. I can go to bed at 22.00, I can go to bed the next day. It depends on my plans and what I feel like
 
@JessFR
I've struggled to hold down a 'normal' or regular sleeping pattern for as long as I can remember, was getting zopiclone and temazepam from the GP when I was a young teen for insomnia.

Yet I'm only a morning person if I haven't slept.
If I have slept, I'm shit in the morning, slow and can be grumpy, especially if someones being loud - and I really struggle to get out of bed. Unless I know I can literally go and score then I'm like a rocket.
 
I've experimented with all sleep schedules. For a while I'd wake up at midnight when I was at university then a few years later I tried waking up at 1 or 1:30pm. I can wake up in the morning too. It's all the same to me

I'm probably not normal though. When I was a kid I sleepwalked a lot and one time there was an earthquake but I didn't know till the sun came up; I slept through it
 
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