One More Reason to Become Smoke Free: Better Sleep

Here’s a shocker: smokers don’t sleep quite as well as non-smokers. (Okay, so that’s not a shocker.)

New research, which you can read in summary form here, shows that cigarette smokers are four times as likely as nonsmokers to report feeling unrested after a night’s sleep. (Confession: this isn’t really new information; the study is “new” but the results have long been suspected.)

The study also reveals that smokers spend less time in deep sleep and more time in light sleep than nonsmokers, with the greatest differences in sleep patterns seen in the early stages of sleep. Deep sleep is what gives you that feeling of restfulness and is the zone where your body can physically rejuvenate itself at the cellular level. No deep sleep means you won’t recuperate well from the day and be ready for the next.

Granted, I know that quitting smoking is easier said than done, and I don’t pretend to have the quick-fix solution for that. But I can’t think of a better way to tackle 2008 than to make this the year to call it quits. It’s easy to forget that nicotine is a stimulant when so many smokers claim to “have a smoke” to relax themselves. This is called the “Nicotine Paradox", and is well documented.

Nicotine can stay in the body for as long as 14 hours. The effects of smoke on sleep depend largely on an individual’s smoking habits (how much one smokes), but in general nicotine reduces total sleep time and deep sleep time. It’s also been shown to worsen sleep-disordered breathing. Having said that, however, smokers who experience cravings due to nicotine-withdrawal symptoms in the middle of the night can be rudely awakened by the need to smoke and once they do, they can then go back to sleep. (In fact, insomnia is among smokers’ most common complaints.)

In my last book, Beauty Sleep, I encouraged people to quit smoking but did not make the program contingent upon there being absolutely no cigarettes in one’s life. This would be unrealistic for those who haven’t taken the steps necessary to lose the cigarettes once and for all.

But I did offer this suggestion: Try having your last cigarette of the night about one hour earlier than normal. Keep yourself busy with your nighttime routine and get to bed on time. Make it a goal to wean yourself off nicotine little by little so you’re smoke-free by 2009 if not sooner.

Among the more fascinating (but unsurprising) aspects to the study was that the researchers found it difficult to find smokers with no health conditions so they could fairly isolate the effects of smoking on sleep patterns. They needed to remove all factors that could potentially affect sleep, such as coexisting medical conditions, in order to show that sleep abnormalities in smokers could be directly associated with cigarette use.

Because smoking entails a host of risk factors for illness and disease, it’s easy to see how finding otherwise “healthy” smokers would be a challenge. I’m hoping that the results of this study help doctors better understand how to tailor smoking-cessation programs to an individual’s needs so the sleep effects are minimized. We need to do more for people who cannot seem to nix the fix.

The thought of becoming smoke free and fully rested every night sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? If only that thought were enough…

Comments

[cathetel]

Nicotine may stay in the blood a long time, but it is the disruption to the acid-alkali balance that has far greater impact on the body. That's why it takes so long to quit. Stop for 3 days, and you will have a far better chance of making it a lifetime.
http://www.cathetel.com/quit_smoking.htm