Smoking cigarettes can lead to a myriad of health problems, and now there may be a link between smoking and lack of sleep.
Research published in the journal Addiction Biology indicates that smokers not only sleep less than non-smokers, but the sleep that they do get is of a lower quality. Scientists at Charite Berlin medical school in Germany surveyed nearly 1,100 smokers. Of the responents, 17 percent got fewer than six hours of sleep each night and 28 percent reported “disturbed” sleep quality.
Researchers caution that the findings cannot prove that smoking directly impairs sleep. Smokers may have other lifestyle habits that could affect their shut-eye such as staying up late or getting little exercise. The lead researcher on the study says, however, that he suspects the culprit is the stimulating effects of nicotine.
The study included 1,071 smokers and 1,243 non-smokers who were free of mental health disorders, since those conditions may make a person both more likely to smoke and more vulnerable to sleep problems.
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