Quitting smoking can also help you sleep better, especially women At the end of last year, in fact, the University of New York, after having outlined the average trend of female smoking over the course of life, published in Sleep Medicine a study according to which for a rapid improvement of sleep it is necessary to abandon the cigarette. The result would be assured for the 40-year-olds who thus also avoid developing insomnia 25 years later, which was directly related to the quantity and type of cigarettes smoked. Smoking and nicotine have a biological effect on both short and long-term sleep, which can also be observed immediately from a simple electroencephalographic recording in which alpha brain waves increase, those that characterize the state of relaxed wakefulness. This is associated with both the release of neurotransmitters associated with awakening such as dopamine, and the inhibition of those related to sleep such as serotonin or GABA. In heavy smokers sometimes a condition of nocturnal nicotinic abstinence develops, capable of awakening them even from the deepest sleep, forcing them to smoke before going back to bed. Nor should we forget the impact of smoking on respiratory function which can result in disorders such as obstructive morpheic apnea which seriously undermines the quality of rest due to the continuous micro-awakenings due to the sensation of suffocation due to the insufficient quantity of inhaled air, as a state also mentioned during a press conference organized by the Italian Sleep Medicine Association.
I study
In 2019, researchers from West Virginia University showed in Sleep Medicine that those who smoke or chew tobacco have a double risk of insomnia than non-smokers and this effect would also be affected by passive smokers: if they are exposed to smoke for a week, at home or in the office, they lose deep, restorative sleep for a month. The risk of smoking insomnia however begins well before age 40: two previous studies, one on Japanese students published in Sleep Medicine and another on American students published in Pediatrics, indicate that those who smoke have higher levels of insomnia than their peers. smokers. However, the decalogue on good sleep issued last year by the CDC USA (the Centers for Disease Control) in the recommendations to American students indicates in point N.5 precisely the habit of smoking as a risky behavior for the reduction of canonical 8-10 hours per night recommended for ages 13 to 18 by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Smoking throughout life
In the New York University study, female smoking was assessed on the basis of four levels of daily consumption: 0 = no cigarettes, 1 = less than half a pack per day, 2 = half to one pack per day, 3 = over one pack per day. It was thus possible to delineate three groups of smoking habits: 1) heavy smokers, 2) moderate smokers, 3) late repentants and 4) non-smokers. Those who repent and quit have on average a peak of daily consumption around the age of 43, after which they smoke less and less until around 65 they throw away the pack for good. Heavy smokers have a brief afterthought at about 48, they start smoking a little less, but they never stop completely and reach 65 with the pack in their pocket. The 48-year-old threshold is also important for moderate smokers who, on the other hand, have a sort of revival at that age and resume smoking as before their 43rd birthday, when they had touched the lowest threshold, passing from the full pack. of their 40s for only half a pack. Even these women still reach the age of 65 still smoking a few cigarettes, perhaps only at meals and on special occasions, but they always remain under half a pack. According to another, a study by the Universities of Pennsylvania and Virginia published in Addictive Behaviors, women who quit when they are still teenagers almost always have a boyfriend who quits with them. The opposite never happens: no male stops when his girlfriend does.
May 8, 2021 (change May 8, 2021 | 14:04)
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