Colleges should schedule early morning classes on Fridays to discourage students from starting their weekend partying on Thursday nights, researchers advise.

HealthDay News reported June 27 that researchers found "significant relationships between the presence and timing of Friday classes and Thursday drinking" when surveying 3,341 students at a large Midwestern university.

"About half of the students with late or no Friday classes consumed at least one drink on Thursday, but only a third of students did so if they had Friday classes which met at 10 a.m. or earlier," said lead study author Phillip K. Wood of the University of Missouri at Columbia. "Approximately two-thirds of students who consumed some alcohol Thursday consumed a 'binge amount' if they had late or no Friday classes.

"The Friday-class effect was more pronounced for populations which we know to be at risk for higher levels of alcohol consumption: men, and members of or frequent participants in Greek activities," Wood added. "We also found strong evidence that Thursday, in addition to Friday and Saturday, is associated with high prevalence and levels of alcohol consumption across all four years of college."

The study appears in the July 2007 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.