New research suggests that sleep problems and energy products may contribute to a teen's risk of drinking alcohol.

Researchers found that both sleeping problems and use of energy products are associated with greater risk of alcohol use in teenagers.

"Our findings suggest that teenagers may be using highly caffeinated energy products to cope with sleep loss, and both sleep problems and energy product use are associated with increased risk of alcohol use," Wendy Troxel, lead author of the study and a behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation, said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 2,500 teens.

They did a cross-sectional examination of the association between self-reported measures of trouble sleeping, weekend and weekday total sleep time, and energy product use, and past month alcohol use. They also examined associations separately by race/ethnicity for Whites, Latinos, Asians and "Other" racial/ethnic categories.

Previous studies have found that high school students are less likely to consume alcohol in states with stronger alcohol policies, even if they aren't targeting teens directly.

The findings are detailed in online supplement of the journal Sleep and were presented Wednesday, in Seattle, Wash. at SLEEP 2015, the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.