Young adults who vaped experienced interrupted sleeping, which turned their sleep-vape schedule into a vicious cycle, according to research published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
Researchers from the University of Texas in Houston and UW-CTRI tracked 35 young adults (ages 18–25) who vaped daily and wore smartwatches 24/7 to assess sleep quality. Participants completed ecological momentary assessments for a week.
Not surprisingly, those who had interrupted sleep were also more likely to wake in a bad mood, craving a hit on their vape.
“Vaping and sleep definitely appear to be a vicious cycle,” said co-author and UW-CTRI Research Director Dr. Megan Piper. “The more dependent you become (i.e., the more you vape) the more your sleep is disrupted. After a night of disrupted sleep, you feel terrible and you have more cravings for nicotine, so you vape more, and that further disrupts your sleep.”
Participants weren’t interested in quitting, Piper said, but the majority reported that during the course of the study they learned that they had sleep problems and vaped more than they thought.
“One of our next steps is to think about how best to harness this understanding of how vaping influences sleep along with young adults’ improved insight into their sleep quality and how much they actually vape to motivate them to think about cessation,” Piper said. “Young adults don’t tend to focus on distal consequences, but understanding the current negative consequences of their vaping might be the nudge some people need to make a quit attempt.”
It’s possible that these young adults vaped in part because they were sleepy and wanted the stimulation to stay awake, in addition to responding to cravings.
“This paper is an excellent example of the limitations of self-reporting,” Piper said. “People can’t always tell you what is happening—and having objective measures of sleep and how often they vape can help people better understand their automatic behaviors.”
Nam Jk, Yang JJ, Ran S, Piper ME, Buu A. Bidirectional Relationships Between Sleep Quality and Nicotine Vaping: Studying Young Adult E-Cigarette Users in Real Time and Real Life. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Online March 5, 2025.