It is known that smokers have difficulty with their sleep. Most studies show with an increase of smoking there is an increase in sleep latency (takes longer to fall asleep) insomnia, fragmented sleep, reduced sleep efficiency and increased daytime fatigue. Smoking heavily effects other factors of your health  as most of us know, and your sleep is not spared.

Other co-morbidities that can affect a smoker’s sleep is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is where we see a fragmented sleep due to the interruption of breathing that leads to oxygen desaturations. Smokers are 40 times more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea syndrome than non-smokers. 

Smoking in early teens can lead to insomnia in later life. If one has been a continual heavy smoker since their teen years, we have already seen problems with insomnia and sleep fragmentation occur. Those that either smoked heavily or moderately had a higher probability of stating they had problems with insomnia versus low to non-smoking groups. We see that issues that can carry over from teenage years can effect adult life.

There has been improvement seen when there is a reduction of the amount of nicotine consumed. When suffering from fragmented sleep, which occurs with high nicotine consumption, REM sleep is suppressed. Suppressing REM sleep leads to the fuzzy brain people feel when sleep deprived. In those people who quit smoking and stay off cigarettes for good, a reversal in bad sleep can occur. It takes time and a doctor can help you attain your healthy goals. If you have other co-morbidities that may be affecting your sleep, a sleep study can diagnose sleep disorders and a sleep specialist can ascertain the need to treat other factors that may also contribute to poor sleep.