Sleep and alertness disturbance and substance use disorders: A bi-directional relation.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review without systematic methodology or quantitative synthesis.
PubMed 33582097 · doi:10.1016/j.pbb.2021.173153
What was done
Narrative review evaluating literature on how sleep and alertness disturbances influence substance use disorders across various substances and stages of addiction, focusing on the reverse direction of the commonly studied drug-to-sleep disruption pathway.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical results or statistical findings. It concludes that sleep and alertness disturbances affect all phases of the addiction cycle, including initiation, maintenance, and relapse across a variety of substances.
Why it matters
Emphasizing sleep disturbance as an upstream contributor rather than merely a downstream consequence frames sleep management as a potential target in addiction treatment.
Limits
As a narrative review, it lacks systematic search criteria, meta-analytic pooling, and quantitative effect sizes. The abstract does not specify the specific substances reviewed, study counts, or primary participant numbers.
Cited by
- supports Addiction relapse is most likely to occur during periods of stress, such as interpersonal conflict or sleep deprivation.