Does Vaping Influence Sleep?
Is vaping having an influence on your sleep? The short answer is yes it does. However, there are a few changes that can be made to improve the quality of your sleep.
As it’s becoming easier to quit traditional cigarettes by switching to an electronic vaping device. You can still get your nicotine hit by using a nicotine-based e-liquid but this does have its disadvantages. Nicotine is the main cause of sleep deprivation when vaping, especially if you vape a higher nicotine strength. Nicotine is a well-known stimulant, just like caffeine, leaving you with more energy, it increases blood pressure and heart rate, this will affect your ability to fall asleep quicker and stay asleep for longer. It can also influence how much sleep you get each night, depending on the strength of nicotine and how often you vape.
Reasons for Poor Sleep
The strength of nicotine in e-cigarettes are greater than regular cigarettes. Therefore, once you’ve switched to vaping you may notice a change in your sleep pattern. Nicotine being the addictive substance, you may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night because your body begins to feel the effects of withdrawal. Your sleep may not have been affected as much as smoking a cigarette, but the nicotine from an e-cigarette can cause greater withdrawal symptoms. You may find yourself you can’t sleep because you keep waking up as you crave another hit and if you do reach out for the e-cigarette you will only stimulate your body again and find it hard to fall back to sleep. The type of deep sleep we all need is called REM; this is when we are most rested, and our body goes into deep sleep mode. The effects of nicotine on REM are disturbed and most vapers only experience light sleep and feel more tired upon waking.
Sleep Quality
Here are a few tips on how you can improve the quality of your sleep. To begin, the best and most successful strategy to improve your sleep is to use 0mg e-liquids a few hours before going to bed. Swapping to an e-liquid that has no nicotine or a low level of nicotine will let your body to calm and lessen the impact of nicotine in your body and system, this will then improve your sleep. It may take a few evenings to discover a strategy that works best for you if you vape less in the evening.
Why not check out our Nasty Juice e-liquids which are available in low nicotine strength or even nicotine free. What’s even better you can choose your favourite flavours and save them before bedtime.
Turn that Screen Off!
Other things you can do is reduce screen time, main reason for this is the blue light emitted from your devices disturbs your circadian rhythm (sleep cycle). Tricking your brain to think it’s time to be awake rather than time let your body relax and wind down for sleep. Blue light emitted from devices such as phones, laptops and TV’s should be reduced when you’re trying to figure out a sleep pattern, especially if you vape. Blue light delays the natural release of sleep-inducing melatonin.
Staying Hydrated
Smoking and vaping both can cause a dry throat, it’s important to stay hydrated throughout the day by drinking plenty of water/fluids. The worse thing is getting up in the middle of the night for a drink. If you vape nicotine, you may already suffer from a dry mouth so keeping hydrated is key, that is if you want to avoid further sleep disruption. Another thing is you don’t want to drink too much water at night, you’ll be waking up to take a trip to the bathroom. If you have a fan in the room, try not to point this directly on you as this can further dry your throat, you could try a humidifier keeps you cool and hydrates.
Stick to a Regular Sleep Pattern
Getting into sleep pattern can be a great idea to get your body into a routine. Each night set out a routine, like going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, try doing this even on weekends. Even if you are feeling the effects of nicotine from your e-liquid, having a regular bedtime routine will help your body to regulate itself.
Alcohol, Caffeine and Energy Drinks
Other stimulants that keep you awake at night, alcohol, caffeine, and energy drinks should be avoided closer to bedtime. Like nicotine, caffeinated drinks can cause increased alertness, rapid heartbeat, insomnia, and headaches. Having these drinks early in the afternoon is ok as it keeps you alert, but you don’t want to ruin your sleep especially, if you’re trying to stick to a new sleeping routine.
If you follow the above tips, you’ll improve the quality of sleep you can get each night. Remember, it’s a process and it will take time for your body to get used to. So, just stick with it as the health benefits switching to vaping is worth it in in the long run.