Does Nicotine Affect Sleep?

Sleep is a vital part of our existence. Whenever you sleep, your whole body acquires the needed rest to recharge and make sure it will be ready again the next time you wake up. Sleeping also helps in supporting your growth and development. Without getting enough sleep, you may slowly raise your risk of developing chronic or long-term health problems. 

Now, there are many ways on how to improve your sleep quality. Some of them include exercising regularly, eating a meal a few hours before bedtime, refraining from using any gadgets prior to sleeping, and many more.

Some individuals, however, believe that smoking cigarettes before bed doesn’t impact their sleep quality. However, medical research contradicts this notion. Read more to find out key ways nicotine affects your sleep quality and patterns.

Do Cigarettes Keep You Awake?

One thing you should know about cigarettes is they are comprised of tobacco.

Tobacco is a type of plant that contains nicotine, a highly addictive substance that acts as a stimulant when consumed. To transfer nicotine from the cigarettes to your body, all you need to do is light one up and puff the tobacco smoke it releases.

Many brands of cigarettes are available at NativeSmokes4Less. They then come in delectable flavours to make sure you get your desired throat hits while enjoying the distinctive taste of tobacco and additional flavourings like menthol.

As nicotine from cigarettes enters your body, it travels throughout your bloodstream until it reaches your brain. There, it commands the said part to release adrenaline, creating a buzz of pleasure and energy. Dopamine release is also expected once the nicotine makes its way to your brain. All these things happen in just a few seconds of inhaling the cigarette smoke.

But it doesn’t end there.

Cigarettes can keep you awake every time you smoke them due to nicotine. As mentioned, nicotine works as a stimulant. By the time it commands the brain to release hormones, your body responds by increasing a person’s breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate. 

As an effect, you may find yourself having trouble sleeping. You may also experience waking up frequently throughout the night or sleep disturbances. Your sleep quality and sleep duration may likewise be compromised and shortened, which does not often happen to non-smokers. 

The best thing you can do to prevent these side effects of nicotine is to refrain from smoking cigarettes at least four hours before you go to bed. Doing this helps stabilize your breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate to a normal level. Hormone release may also be stabilized when you don’t smoke a few hours before you sleep. 

Does Smoking Before Bed Keep You Awake?

Are you curious about the factors that might keep you awake before going to bed?

A lot of things happen every day. So, it’s not surprising to see many individuals having some trouble sleeping at night. Some possible reasons why you have difficulty sleeping are as follows:

• Stress and mental health disorders: Stress arises from various concerns like work, school, health, money, or family can keep your mind active at night. This makes it challenging for you to fall asleep. You may have also encountered stressful life events lately like losing a loved one, divorce, or job loss, which can contribute to mental health disorders and trigger sleep disorders.
• Poor sleep habits: If you always take naps, then it can be difficult for you to sleep. Poor sleep habits like going to bed and waking up at different times each day, being overly active before bedtime, and having an uncomfortable sleeping environment can also keep you awake. Even eating, watching TV while in bed, or using smartphones or computers before bed can ruin your sleep cycle, making it difficult for you to sleep optimally. 
• Caffeine and alcohol intake: Love to drink coffee, tea, cola, and other similar drinks a few hours before you sleep? Then they can contribute to your sleeping problems. Consuming them in the late afternoon or evening can disrupt your sleep due to their caffeine content, a stimulant that can interfere with sleep. While alcohol may help you fall asleep, its content won’t allow you to reach deeper stages of sleep, leading to frequent awakenings during the night.
• Taking medicines: Prescription drugs like antidepressants and asthma or blood pressure medications, as well as over-the-counter medications like pain relievers, allergy and cold remedies, and weight loss products, can make it difficult for you to sleep as they often feature caffeine and other stimulants that can keep your body systems active for hours.

Aside from these potential reasons, another thing that can keep you awake before bed is smoking cigarettes. Smoking can keep you awake at night or before bedtime since the nicotine content of the cigarettes takes a long time to leave your body.

When you smoke, it would take around 5 to 25 minutes longer before you fall asleep compared to nonsmokers. Additionally, cigarettes can affect the duration of your sleep. So, every time you smoke a cigarette a few hours before you sleep, you might find yourself waking up in the middle of your sleep, which can be somehow frustrating if you still have work the next day. 

Without changing your smoking routine and habits, you may eventually encounter sleep problems that contribute to long-term health concerns like daytime mental impairment, increased risk of heart disease, and obesity.

Does Nicotine Affect REM Sleep?

When you fall asleep, you frequently alternate between Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (non-REM) sleep.

During REM sleep, your eyes move rapidly in different directions. During this time, your brain becomes highly active, exhibiting similar activity to when you’re awake. Dreams often occur during REM sleep.

In contrast, your brain is less active during non-REM sleep. In the deeper stages of this sleep phase, your breathing slows down and your blood pressure drops.

Every time you fall asleep, the sleep cycle typically begins with non-REM sleep, followed by a shorter period of REM sleep, and then the cycle repeats until you wake up the next few hours. 

REM sleep holds significant importance as it helps stimulate the brain regions that are needed for learning and memory consolidation. During this stage, your brain likewise undergoes repair processes and processes emotional experiences. Moreover, it facilitates the transfer of short-term memories into long-term memory storage.

Non-REM sleep, alternatively, is essential for the repair processes of your body, which encompasses tissue regeneration, bone and muscle growth, and bolstering the immune system. 

REM sleep and non-REM sleep complement each other since the former supports cognitive and emotional health while the latter focuses on the restoration of your physical body.

Given the importance of REM sleep, it’s important to know whether nicotine can affect it.

Nicotine, as discussed earlier, can increase your breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate once it enters your body. It can then lead to trouble sleeping, frequent sleep disturbances, and poor sleep quality. Your sleep duration may also be shortened. 

But another thing it can do is to compromise your REM sleep.

A study on the effects of nicotine on sleep revealed that nicotine consumption can suppress REM sleep. Without getting enough REM sleep, you’ll feel foggy or groggy upon waking up. Additionally, you may experience reduced energy levels and increased hunger. Furthermore, compromised REM sleep can suppress your desire for exercise and physical activities and lead to forgetfulness and irritability.

To improve your REM sleep, you should avoid smoking cigarettes, especially a few hours before you sleep. You should also create a relaxing bedtime routine so you can wind down before going to bed. You must likewise exercise, avoid alcohol and caffeine, avoid TV and electronics before sleeping, and set a sleep schedule and stick to it as much as possible. 

How Long Does Nicotine Keep You Awake?

In general, nicotine has a half-life of two hours, meaning its concentration in your body halves during that time. However, not everyone metabolizes nicotine at the same rate. 

Factors such as how much nicotine you consume, genetics, diet, weight, age, and medications you take can all influence how quickly nicotine leaves your body.

Now, whether you smoke cigarettes or take nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) tools like nicotine gum or nicotine patch, your body will treat nicotine similarly. Hence, it would often take up to 25 minutes longer before you fall asleep when you consume this particular stimulant from any source.

Nicotine, after all, is a stimulant that can make you alert and energetic, which lasts for several hours. Additionally, it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and sleep architecture. Sleep architecture is the pattern of sleep stages that you undergo whenever you sleep. 

Cigarette smokers, based on a review of the literature on smoking, smoking cessation, and sleep, tend to experience slightly delayed sleep onset compared to nonsmokers. Additionally, they often experience fragmented sleep patterns, which can lead to insomnia. Consequently, smokers tend to sleep less, experience reduced deep sleep, and encounter more sleep disruptions. They even complain frequently about difficulty falling or staying asleep.

Even if you are asleep, you may experience nicotine cravings that could be strong enough to disrupt your sleep and wake you up. The cravings you have for nicotine will then make your body feel restless, which prevents you from getting good quality sleep.

Nicotine consumption, particularly through cigarette smoking, can likewise increase the chances of developing and severity of snoring and sleep apnea. These sleeping issues are not only brought by nicotine but are also caused by the harmful chemicals and pollutants present in cigarette smoke. 

These irritants can cause airway swelling, especially the soft tissues that line the nose and throat. As a result, your lungs may get damaged, leading to decreased oxygen levels at night. 

As you quit smoking and reduce nicotine consumption, you’ll feel a huge difference in terms of your overall sleep quality and duration. Your sleep architecture is expected to improve over time. 

To improve your sleep quality while quitting smoking, it’s recommended that you do the following:

• Exercise. Getting enough physical activity during the day aids in combatting nicotine cravings. It can also help you fall asleep easier during bedtime during nicotine withdrawal.
• Reduce caffeine. Coffee, soft drinks, and other drinks with caffeine can keep us awake and alert. However, when you combine them with cigarette smoking, their caffeine content tends to stay on your body longer. To get better sleep while you’re quitting smoking, you should first stop drinking caffeinated beverages and coffee at least 8 hours before your bedtime.
• Regulate NRT use.  While it’s highly suggested to take NRT for smoking cessation, you must regulate its consumption. If you are having trouble sleeping, you must stop using any nicotine products around an hour before bedtime. You can also request your doctor to change the dosage of your NRT and see if your sleep quality improves over time.
• Follow a regular sleeping schedule. You must create a regular bedtime schedule and set an alarm to make sure you wake up at the same time. You can incorporate a nighttime routine and create a conducive sleep environment to make it easier for you to adhere to your sleep-wake schedule.
• Turn off electronics. Phones and laptops emit artificial blue light that can suppress melatonin production, which isthe hormone responsible for regulating sleep. Turning them off at least an hour or two before bedtime can help you fall asleep faster. You can then read a book, meditate, or do other things that can prepare your mind and body for quality sleep.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do cigarettes help you stay awake?

Yes, cigarettes can help you stay awake due to their nicotine content. When you smoke one, it can temporarily increase your level of alertness, concentration, and energy. As the nicotine reaches your brain, it triggers neurotransmitters responsible for the said effects. However, cigarettes can disrupt your sleep patterns and cause long-term fatigue.

Do cigarettes make you sleepy or awake?

Cigarettes can have both stimulating and relaxing effects, depending on how your body reacts to nicotine. For some, smoking cigarettes can calm their minds and bodies by relieving stress or anxiety. However, for others, cigarettes can make them feel more alert as their nicotine content increases their heart rate, enhances focus, and reduces fatigue in the short term.

Can nicotine keep you awake at night?

Yes, nicotine can keep you awake at night. When consumed, it triggers the release of dopamine and other hormones, making it harder for you to fall asleep. And since nicotine also raises your heart rate and blood pressure, it would be more difficult to relax. As a result, you end up experiencing shorter sleep durations, more frequent awakenings, and lighter sleep.

How long before bed should I avoid nicotine?

You should avoid nicotine consumption for at least 2 to 4 hours before bedtime to minimize the adverse effects of the stimulant on your sleep quality. Consuming nicotine close to bedtime can result in difficulties falling asleep, frequent awakenings, and lighter, less rejuvenating sleep.

Does nicotine make you more sleepy?

For many smokers, no. Nicotine does the opposite as it will keep you awake by keeping you alert, increasing your heart rate, and elevating your blood pressure. While some smokers find consuming nicotine relaxing, the stimulating properties of the said substance generally outweigh its relaxing effects, making it more likely to ruin your sleep than promote it.

Summary

Nicotine, which is often found in cigarettes, is known to increase your breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate. While it has been long linked by many cigarette makers as a way to relax and soothe the senses of smokers out there, this stimulant does the opposite when it comes to sleep.

When you consume nicotine, your sleep patterns may be disrupted, causing delayed sleep onset and reduced sleep duration. It can also affect your REM sleep, reducing its duration and frequency. This leads to grogginess, reduced energy, and forgetfulness. 

To improve your overall sleep, you should avoid smoking hours before bedtime, create a relaxing bedtime routine, and exercise regularly. Quitting smoking can further improve sleep quality and duration alongside exercising, reducing caffeine intake, and regulating NRT use.

But, why do some people find it difficult to quit smoking? Know why cigarettes are addictive here.