Doctors Health Press Reports on Study: Smoking Found to Be a Cause of Insomnia-Like Sleep Problems

Doctors Health Press, a division of Lombardi Publishing Corporation and publisher of various natural health newsletters, books, and reports, including the popular online Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin, is reporting on a new study that found a link between smoking and many sleep problems.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) January 04, 2013

Doctors Health Press, a division of Lombardi Publishing Corporation and publisher of various natural health newsletters, books, and reports, including the popular online Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin, is reporting on a new study that found a link between smoking and many sleep problems.

As Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin (http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/general-health-2/smoking-can-be-the-cause-of-many-sleep-problems) notes, lighting up during the day could be keeping smokers awake at night. Researchers at the University Medical Center Freiburg in Germany conducted an eye-opening study in which they compared the quality of sleep in both smokers and non-smokers.

As the article “Smoking Can Be the Cause of Many Sleep Problems” reports, researchers recruited 44 smokers (29 men and 15 women, all about 30 years of age) to participate in the study. The data collected from these participants was compared with 44 healthy people, matched by age and gender, who had never smoked. The researchers were careful to exclude anyone with alcohol or other substance abuse problems, psychiatric or endocrine diseases, and anyone receiving treatment involving psychotropic medication. In this way, they were able to get an accurate measure of how smoking affected sleep. Nicotine and cotinine (another chemical found in tobacco) levels were measured in the smoking group, and sleep quality was assessed in both groups.

The Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin article outlines the research team's findings. For sleep patterns, compared with non-smokers, smokers:

Slept for shorter periods of time

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/1/prweb10291155.htm

Took longer to fall asleep

Had higher rapid eye movement during sleep

Experienced more episodes of sleep apnea

Experienced more disruptive leg movements

According to the article, the researchers concluded that smokers showed a number of insomnia-like sleep problems. They also pointed out that smokers who quit need support when it comes to insomnia symptoms, because these continuing sleep disturbances can drive a smoker to start smoking again.

(SOURCE: Jaehne, A., et al., “How smoking affects sleep: A polysomnographical analysis,” Sleep Med. December 2012; 13(10): 1,286–92.)

Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin is a daily e-letter providing natural health news with a focus on natural healing through foods, herbs, and other breakthrough health alternative treatments. For more information on Doctors Health Press, visit http://www.doctorshealthpress.com.

Doctors Health Press believes in the healing properties of various alternative remedies, including Traditional Chinese Medicine. To see a video outlining the Doctors Health Press' views on Traditional Chinese Medicine, visit http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/chinesemedicine.