Overall, measurements of brain activity show cigarette smokers aren’t getting as much deep sleep as nonsmokers. Most likely the cause is the stimulating side effect of nicotine.

Basically, the researchers found that smokers have less time in deep sleep (delta power) and more time in light sleep (alpha power) than nonsmokers.

The results of the research study appear in the February issue of the Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Journal (CHEST), which is the journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

The title of the paper is “Power Spectral Analysis of EEG Activity During Sleep in Cigarette Smokers.”

The authors of the study, all with the Johns Hopkins University, are: Lin Zhang, Jonathan Samet, and Naresh M. Punjabi (all with the Department of Epidemiology); Brian Caffo (with the Department of Biostatistics); and Isaac Bankman (with the Applied Physics Laboratory).

The lead author of the study is U.S. pulmonologist Naresh M. Punjabi, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, Maryland). Punjabi and his colleagues compared the sleep of forty smokers and forty nonsmokers while at home using the polysomnography (PSG) technique.

The PSG is a comprehensive recording of the biophysiological changes that occur during sleep periods.

They consider their study unique in that previous studies used subjective (not impartial) measures of sleep (such as responses by subjects that were recorded visually by the researchers).

Instead, the Punjabi team used an objective (free of bias) measure for sleep, along with using subjects that did not have multiple (co-existing) medical illnesses (what is called comorbidities) so that a better direct relationship could be reached between sleep and smokers/nonsmokers).

The subjects also were not taking any medication previous to the study, which also helps to reach a better direct relationship between sleep and smoking/not smoking.

Their objective measurements are deemed better for getting accuracy in results. Please read on to find out why this may help smokers more easily quit smoking.