LESS SLEEP LINKED TO HIGHER DRUG USE

Study Looked At More Than 8,000

Teens who sleep fewer than seven hours per night are more likely to
use illegal drugs, according to a study released Sunday.

The research also found a link between a lack of sleep and the
likelihood of illegal drug use, which can spread through teens'
networks "like a contagion," infecting siblings, friends and
acquaintances as many as four degrees of separation removed.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego and Harvard
University mapped the sleep patterns and drug use of more than 8,000
teens for the study.

"Adolescents are embedded in complex social networks and are
especially vulnerable to peer effects -- possibly not only with
respect to drugs, but also with respect to sleep," said the study,
which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.

The researchers found that a teen with one friend who sleeps fewer
than seven hours is 11 per cent more likely also to sleep fewer than
seven hours.

Teens with a friend who uses marijuana -- the most popular drug among
U.S. adolescents -- are more than twice as likely to use pot themselves.

The researchers also said that teens with a friend who sleeps fewer
than seven hours per night are 19 per cent more likely to use marijuana.

The study said the spread of poor sleep habits from one teen to
another was partly to blame for an increased likelihood of drug use.

The research also suggested that a lack of sleep induces teens to try
alcohol, and said that increasing the number of hours a teen sleeps
each night might help reduce substance abuse among adolescents.