Sleeping Habits - Part 1: Smoking and Sleeping
- posted: Jul. 23, 2020
How does smoking affect one’s sleeping habits? More people seem to be going to electronic cigarettes and with that smoking indoors is easier and less of a burden on one’s social life. As this increases one’s availability to smoking one may partake more often than not. Sleeping with a vape pen beside you or smoking before bed can seem fine but does it affect your sleep at all?
Nicotine is a stimulant and therefore may impact one’s sleeping habits. According to a study in Preventative Medicine Journal there were over 3500 adults surveyed and it was found with both males and females that they had a harder time getting to sleep and waking up[1].
It was noted that increased sleepiness during the daytime was seen more for females and dream disturbances were found more in males who smoked[1].
Another article found in the Archives of Internal Medicine found similar things in a survey of 484 people including high schoolers[2]. Of the 99 high school students who participated in the survey thirty- eight percent were smokers[2]. This study reported that they had difficulty getting and staying asleep as well as daytime sleepiness[2]. It was also reported that an increase in collisions occurred as well as depression and a high level of caffeine intake[2].
This next study looked at the actual sleep structure or as they called it sleep architecture, as they stated no one had studied that specifically[3]. There were approximately 6,400 participants and Polysomnography was used[3]. The sleep parameters they used included total sleep time, how long it took to get to sleep, how well they slept and how long they stayed in each stage. The study broke the participants up into three groups; never smokers, current smokers and former smokers[3]. It was noted that current smokers took longer to get to sleep and didn’t sleep as deeply or as long compared to nonsmokers, however there were no differences between past smokers and nonsmokers which is a good sign for those looking to quit smoking[3]. The authors of this study went on to conclude that nicotine withdrawal while sleeping at night may be a contributor to these results.
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