Smoking and vaping hurt sleeping, OSU researchers find
Monday, September 9, 2019
College students may not have a reputation for the best sleep habits, but a recently
published study indicates cigarette and e-cigarette use isn’t doing them any favors.
Researchers at Oklahoma State University’s Behavior Change Lab surveyed 1,664 college
students — 41 percent of whom reported ever trying or currently using e-cigarettes
and 29 percent of whom reported ever trying or currently using traditional cigarettes.
The study determined that sleep scores were poor across the board, but smokers and
vapers faired worse, with the latter reporting more prevalent use of sleep medications.
Dr. Emma Brett was among the researchers who worked on the project. She said her interest
in student alcohol use eventually led her to study nicotine use and the growing e-cigarette
trend. While the long-term health effects of e-cigarette use remain unknown, on account
of being a relatively new phenomenon, Brett said that doesn’t prevent researchers
from studying short-term effects.
“We know that with some of the e-cig research that’s coming out that students have
wide ranges of perceptions about how harmful they might be,” she said. “The idea is
if we know some of those effects and can incorporate them into prevention and intervention
efforts, not using scare tactics but giving people the full picture, hopefully we
can correct some of those perceptions so at least people are informed about the risks.”
Now a post doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, Brett said she would like
to continue her collaboration with the Behavior Change Lab at OSU.
“I think this study is the first step,” she said. “I would love to continue to pursue
this area and I think others in the Behavior Change Lab would be interested in pursing
this, so hopefully we can continue to collaborate and look into this.”
A recent string of mysterious lung ailments and deaths doctors believe to be linked
to e-cigarettes use has again thrust the controversial nicotine delivery systems back
under the public health microscope. Dr. Thad Leffingwell, OSU psychology department
head, said he expects that scrutiny to continue.
“I would say that the presumed safety of e-cigarettes is becoming less of a safe presumption
over time,” he said. “We definitely need to keep studying that and gathering more
data.“Most of what’s killing our population today is our own behavior. And so the
frontier for improving health in the future is shifting our behavior away from things
that damage our health.”
PHOTO: https://flic.kr/p/2hbyydV
MEDIA CONTACT: Thad Leffingwell | OSU psychology department head | 405.744.6027 | thad.leffingwell@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant university that prepares students
for success. OSU has more than 34,000 students across its five-campus system and more
than 24,000 on its combined Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, with students from all
50 states and around 100 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than
275,000 students to serve the state of Oklahoma, the nation and the world.