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Do you smoke a cigarette before going to bed?

A new study found out that people who smoke are 4 times more at risk than non-smokers to sleep worsening. Smokers experience less of the deep sleep, particularly in the early stages of sleep. It is connected to a nicotine withdrawal smoked each night.

Dr. Naresh M. Punjabi from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said: “It is possible that smoking has time-dependent effects across the sleep period. Smokers commonly experience difficulty falling asleep due to the stimulating effects of nicotine. As night evolves, withdrawal from nicotine may further contribute to sleep disturbance”.

The study was made on non-smoking and smoking subjects, free of drug use and diseases that could lose sleep. Punjabi stated: “In order to isolate the effects of smoking on sleep architecture, we needed to remove all factors that could potentially affect sleep, in particular, coexisting medical conditions. In the absence of several medical conditions, sleep abnormalities in smokers could then be directly associated with cigarette use”.

Scientists used both visual analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns and power spectral analysis of the EEG (mathematical analysis of various frequencies observed within the sleep EEG) to analyze sleep patterns. Dr. Naresh M. Punjabi said: “Previous sleep studies have relied on visual scoring of sleep stages, which is time-consuming and subject to misclassification. Spectral analysis allows us to more objectively classify the sleep EEG signals and helps detect subtle changes that may have been overlooked with visual scoring”.

Researches showed the following result: a decreased percentage of deep sleep and an increased percentage of light sleep in the case of the smokers. Besides, 22.5% of the smokers had a non-restful sleep, in comparison with only 5% of non-smokers. Nicotine withdrawal is more powerful in the early stages of sleep and little by little gets down along the sleep period.

Punjabi said: “Many smokers have difficulty with smoking cessation partly because of the sleep disturbances as a result of nicotine withdrawal. By understanding the temporal effects of nicotine on sleep, we may be able to better tailor nicotine replacement to minimize the withdrawal effects that smokers experience, particularly during sleep”.