Alcohol consumption and incidence of sleep disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

Objective: To investigate the association between alcohol consumption and incidence of sleep disorder. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE and OVID were searched systematically until March 2020 for cohort studies quantitatively investigating the effect of alcohol on incident sleep disorder. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis to calculate the summary ORs (odds ratios) and 95 %CIs (confidence intervals) on the incidence of sleep disorder in relation to alcohol consumption. Results: The pooled analysis of eleven included cohort studies demonstrated that general drinking was significantly associated with incidence of sleep disorder (OR:1.37, 95 %CI:1.22,1.54,I² = 0.0 %) while heavy drinking was not (OR:1.22, 95 %CI:0.94,1.60, I² = 81.1 %). (general drinking (women <24 g/day; men <48 g/day; < 4 times/week), heavy drinking (women ≥24 g/day; men ≥48 g/day; ≥ 4times/week)). Conclusions: Findings from the present systematic review and meta-analyses showed that there was no evidence that alcohol consumption diminished sleep problems, and some evidence that general drinking might increase the sleep problems, but further study is necessary.