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. 2022 Mar 1;18(3):877-884.
doi: 10.5664/jcsm.9736.

Impact of daily caffeine intake and timing on electroencephalogram-measured sleep in adolescents

Jessica R Lunsford-Avery  1 , Scott H Kollins  1 , Sujay Kansagra  2 , Ke Will Wang  3 , Matthew M Engelhard  4
Affiliations

Impact of daily caffeine intake and timing on electroencephalogram-measured sleep in adolescents

Jessica R Lunsford-Avery et al. J Clin Sleep Med. .

Abstract

Study objectives: Caffeine use is ubiquitous among adolescents and may be harmful to sleep, with downstream implications for health and development. Research has been limited by self-reported and/or aggregated measures of sleep and caffeine collected at a single time point. This study examines bidirectional associations between daily caffeine consumption and electroencephalogram-measured sleep among adolescents and explores whether these relationships depend on timing of caffeine use.

Methods: Ninety-eight adolescents aged 11-17 (mean =14.38, standard deviation = 1.77; 50% female) participated in 7 consecutive nights of at-home sleep electroencephalography and completed a daily diary querying morning, afternoon, and evening caffeine use. Linear mixed-effects regressions examined relationships between caffeine consumption and total sleep time, sleep-onset latency, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, and time spent in sleep stages. Impact of sleep indices on next-day caffeine use was also examined.

Results: Increased total caffeine consumption was associated was increased sleep-onset latency (β = .13; 95% CI = .06, .21; P < .001) and reduced total sleep time (β = -.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -.31, -.02; P = .02), sleep efficiency (β = -1.59; 95% CI = -2.51, -.67; P < .001), and rapid eye movement sleep (β = -.12; 95% CI = -.19, -.05; P < .001). Findings were driven by afternoon and evening caffeine consumption. Reduced sleep efficiency was associated with increased afternoon caffeine intake the following day (β = -.006; 95% CI = -.012, -.001; P = .01).

Conclusions: Caffeine consumption, especially afternoon and evening use, impacts several aspects of adolescent sleep health. In contrast, most sleep indicators did not affect next-day caffeine use, suggesting multiple drivers of adolescent caffeine consumption. Federal mandates requiring caffeine content labeling and behavioral interventions focused on reducing caffeine intake may support adolescent sleep health.

Citation: Lunsford-Avery JR, Kollins SH, Kansagra S, Wang KW, Engelhard MM. Impact of daily caffeine intake and timing on electroencephalogram-measured sleep in adolescents. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(3):877-884.

Keywords: EEG; adolescents; caffeine; rapid eye movement sleep; sleep duration; sleep efficiency; sleep-onset latency.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript. Work for this study was performed at Duke University School of Medicine. This study was funded by the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS). Further funding was provided by National Institute of Mental Health grant K23MH108704 to J.R.L.-A. The funder/sponsor did not participate in the work. The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Mean caffeine use by timing (morning, afternoon, evening) for each of the sleep patterns.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Differences in sleep indices by caffeine timing pattern.
1 = No Caffeine, 2 = Morning Caffeine, 3 = Afternoon Caffeine, 4 = Evening Caffeine, 5 = Heavy Evening Caffeine. Whiskers extend to outliers within 1.5× IQR of the high and low quartiles, respectively. hrs = hours, IQR = interquartile range, REM = rapid eye movement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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