Lack of sleep promotes smoking
According to a sleep researcher, more than half of all Germans live permanently in a kind of jetlag because they lag behind their internal clock - and many of those affected reach for a cigarette.
The Munich sleep researcher Till Roenneberg from the Ludwig Maximilian University sees this connection after evaluating a new study with 500 volunteers. Roenneberg explains that those who get up early and do not live and work in accordance with their internal clock are the ones who are most likely to become smokers.
While only 10 percent of the test subjects who deviated from their personal biorhythm by no more than one hour reached for the fag, around 70 percent of those who recorded "bio-jetlag" for more than seven hours did. Roenneberg's study shows - as well as various previous studies - that the majority has their preferred sleeping window between 12:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. However, there are individual shifts both forwards and clearly backwards.
According to Roenneberg, the individual chronotype is primarily genetic. Typical night people who find it difficult to get going in the morning and then like to reach for a cigarette as a stimulant are additionally paralyzed by too little light at work. According to Roenneberg, more flexible working and school hours and, above all, bright lamps in the office could help – and they are also he althier because the cigarette consumption will probably decrease as a result.
