A new study has revealed that teenagers who sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to abuse marijuana.

• Researchers from Harvard University and University of California in San Diego studied the sleep patterns and drug use of 8,000 teenagers.
  
• Teens who have friends who sleep less than seven hours a night are also more likely to sleep fewer than seven hours.
  
• Teens with friends who use marijuana were more than twice as likely to use it themselves.
  
• Teens with friends who both sleep less than seven hours and use marijuana are 20 times more likely to use marijuana themselves.

The researchers believe that increasing the number of hours teens sleep each night might help reduce the prevalence of teen abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

This study was presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Labels: marijuana, sleep

Posted By: Aspen/CRC