It’s no secret that smoking can seriously affect your health, but the consequences can be worse when sleep apnea is also present. If you smoke and have sleep apnea or know someone who does, you probably wondered how smoking affects sleep apnea and overall sleep.
Smoking interferes with your body’s natural sleep cycle and has a long lasting impact on your ability to sleep restfully. Nicotine found in cigarettes causes physiological reactions that awaken your body, can induce airway obstruction and inflammation both in the nose and upper airway, and compromise the success of CPAP therapy.