Tobacco and Insomnia: Everything you need to know

It is clear that there are certain products that we all know affect our ability to sleep, such as coffee, tea or mate, for example. The properties of caffeine to prevent people from falling asleep are well known, but what about tobacco, and is it related to insomnia? We tell you everything you need to know about the relationship between both.

First of all, we need to analyse the components of tobacco. While it is true that it does not contain any caffeine, it does contain some addictive substances with neurological properties such as nicotine.

Many people think of nicotine as a nervous system relaxant – especially smokers – because getting their daily dose of nicotine calms and soothes them. However, this is due more to the dependence caused by nicotine than to a calming property. What we are actually doing is creating the perfect breeding ground for insomnia.

Nicotine, like caffeine, is a nervous system stimulant whose consumption has a decisive effect on our sleep patterns. One of the factors to take into account when consuming nicotine is the amount of nicotine we are consuming. Thus, one or two cigarettes may not lead to visible changes and increased brain activity (which translates into a reduced desire to sleep) but a higher amount of nicotine consumption will clearly lead to a much more severe degree of insomnia.

High doses of nicotine are linked to insomnia

In the scenario in which a smoker consumes more than one cigarette before going to bed, the brain would be stimulated by nicotine and would end up developing insomnia, which would make it difficult to fall asleep.

In fact, several studies have shown that regular smokers sleep less and worse than non-smokers and to a much greater extent than non-smokers or even occasional and moderate smokers.

It is also worth bearing in mind how long nicotine remains in the body. After inhalation through tobacco smoke, nicotine remains in the body for a period of 1 to 3 hours, during which time it affects the body and causes insomnia.

Thus, when the nicotine level drops, after those three hours, it is very likely that the smoker ends up waking up and breaking their sleep because of the imperious need to smoke, so the cycle of insomnia and bad sleep is served.

In conclusion, the best option available to us when we are smokers and, at the same time, suffer from insomnia is, of course, to try to give up smoking. However, this is not always possible and, although ideal, it is a very difficult path, which is why natural serotonin tablets can help and alleviate to a large extent the undesirable effects of tobacco and nicotine on sleep, thus avoiding the insomnia that does us so much harm. Did you know that?