Health - Can Cigarettes / Nicotine cause sleep disturbances?

[~lostgurl~]

SWIM is having a lot of difficulty sleeping at the moment see thread for more deatils: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/sho...560#post215560

And SWIM is wondering if her nicotine habit is causing her sleep wakings. She generally smokes 20-25 light cigarettes per day but that could easily have doubled over the past 6 weeks. So there are two questions SWIM has here, 1. could the large amount of nicotine in SWIM's system be casuing sleep wakings?... or 2. Could she be having withdrawal symtoms during the night from smoking so much during the day?

If it is withdrawal, apart from cutting down on cigarettes SWIM could maybe wear the patch at night for sleep, but if it is due to an overload of nicotine in her system this would more than likely make things much worse. Though at the moment she has no idea if cigarettes are even the cause of her night time Akathesia..... Any advice or experiences with this are welcome!!!

[The Mama]

Nicotine is a stimulant. So I would say there is a strong possibility that it can interfere with sleep.

[DrMuffy]

Well technically nicotine is a stimulant, many people feel like it depresses their CNS. So the two main reasons are: The nicotine from her cigarette habit stimulate SWIlostgurl too much that she cant sleep; or that her habit is so bad that she needs to smoke in the night hours or else she'll go through withdrawal. Well SWIdr suggest that SWIlostgul buys a pack of those nicotine patches and put one on at bedtime and see how that works. Also this problem could very well have nothing to do with nicotine/cigarettes, but who knows. SWIlostgurl might even want to try a sleep aid, but the choices are totally up to you.

[wasted_youth]

Without getting too personal; why the sudden increase in smoking? It couldn't be something psychological?
SWIW used to smoke a 30pack of heavy ciggerettes a day (He's now cut back to ~15) and had issues sleeping. He never made the possible connection.

Otherwise nictotine stays in your blood for a fair while so SWIW wouldn't think its the cravings. Otherwise SWIL would most likely get to sleep, then wake up needing a smoke? Maybe.

If SWIL was so inclined prephaps she should make her 2nd to last ciggerette for the night a mix with some pot to help her sleep? Just to get her body used to sleeping at a certain time. It worked for SWIW but everything always seems to vary.