Does vaping affect your sleep? Does vaping keep you awake? You should know that we receive a lot of questions about whether you should vape before bed. The bottom line is, if you're concerned about the relationship between vaping and your quality of sleep, you're not alone.

Vaping will definitely affect your quality of sleep and contribute to sleep issues. The nicotine in e-juice is a stimulant. You should reduce the nicotine in your e-juice and avoid vaping for at least two hours before bed to improve the quality of your sleep.

Does vaping keep you awake? The facts are clear.

If you're new to vaping and have recently switched from smoking, the e-juice you vape will contain nicotine, whether freebase or Nicotine Salts. Nicotine in e-liquid is the main cause of sleep issues, especially for those using higher nicotine strengths.

Nicotine is a stimulant, similar to caffeine. It increases your blood pressure and heart rate. This directly affects how much sleep (and the quality of sleep!) you get each night.

It can also make it harder for you to actually fall asleep, just like a cup of coffee immediately before bed.

Vaping will keep you awake. But does vaping affect your quality of sleep?

Studies, including this one, have shown that nicotine impacts rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep), the deepest of the four sleep states we enter during the night.

Sleep experts agree that these sleep states are collectively referred to as a sleep cycle, and we typically go through four to five sleep cycles per night. Sleep stages 1 and 2 are light sleep. During this stage, your body prepares for deep sleep, but it's easy to wake you up. Stage 3 is deep sleep. It lasts between 45 and 90 minutes.

The final sleep state, REM sleep, typically occurs around 90 minutes after falling asleep and lasts about 10 minutes. Your subsequent REM stages progressively lengthen, with the final REM stage lasting up to an hour.

It's during REM sleep that you feel most at rest, which is essential for your health, recovery, and memory. Research indicates that vaping (and smoking) can hinder your ability to progress through the lighter sleep stages and enter deep sleep and REM sleep.

Can vaping affect existing sleep disorders?

In terms of existing sleep disorders, of which there are many, the only two obvious disorders likely to be affected by vaping are sleep apnea and snoring.

Sleep apnea is a disorder in which your breathing stops and starts while you sleep, disrupting your slumber and often leaving you feeling exhausted throughout the day. It can place a strain on your heart and is considered a serious sleep disorder.

As for snoring, I don’t know if it would necessarily be categorised as a disorder, however if you’ve ever suffered with snoring you know how disruptive to sleep it can be. Both for the sufferer and their partner!

Inhaling nicotine can lead to inflammation of the throat, nasal passages and bronchial tubes connected to your lungs. Therefore, vaping could affect your breathing throughout the night, contributing to increased snoring and sleep apnea symptoms.

How to stop vaping affecting your sleep?

Ok, so at this point in my journey I knew that vaping could be causing the issues I was experiencing with sleep.

Or far more likely, that vaping was not the actual cause but was certainly exasperating the already existing sleep issues.

So is there anything you can do to stop vaping affecting your sleep?

Reducing the nicotine strength in your e-juice and limiting your intake of nicotine immediately before bed may improve the quality of your sleep. Switching to a nicotine-free e-juice in the evening is also a great way to reduce the nicotine in your system before bed.

I started by dropping from 6mg to 3mg nicotine strength after 5pm every evening. That way I could guarantee the nicotine in my system was lower as I approached ‘bedtime’.

This one small change made a big difference, especially in terms of how alert or ‘fidgety’ I felt late in the evening. I was usually still wide awake after midnight, but lowering the nicotine strength in my e-juice helped to relax and prepare me for sleep.

I also attempted to stop vaping for 2 hours before I’d planned to go to sleep BUT personally, this was difficult and not something I could maintain. Instead I switched to nicotine-free e-juice at the 2 hour countdown mark so I could continue vaping but not worry about the nicotine affecting my sleep.

These two changes made such a HUGE difference to the length of time I spent sleeping AND the quality of my sleep.

I do think I could improve my slight snoring and dry throat throughout the night by cutting out the vaping in that 2 hour window I mentioned above. But with the changes I’ve made so far the difference is night and day and that’s a nice balance for me personally.

Other factors that affect sleep

if you’ve tried the steps I’ve outlined above and you’re still struggling with sleep, there are a few other factors to consider. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day, eating a healthy diet and limiting your screen time are all important for good quality sleep.

It’s also important to avoid other stimulants, such as caffeine, especially close to ‘bedtime’. Keep in mind alcohol and stress can also affect your quality of sleep.

Quick Tip: You can also try CBD vape pens for various potential benefits, including relaxation, stress reduction and improved sleep. We recommend doing some research into CBD vape pens to get all the answers you need to make a final decision.

However, the changes I made to my vaping habits helped me considerably in my quest for better sleep. I also found that simply being more aware of how vaping can affect sleep helped me to make more informed decisions about what to vape and when to vape for better, less interrupted sleep.

Frequently asked questions

Should I vape in bed?

Vaping in bed may affect your quality of sleep, especially if you’re vaping e-juice containing nicotine. For better sleep, it may help limiting yourself to vaping only nicotine-free e-juice up to two hours before you plan on sleeping.

I found it also helped treating vaping the same way I did smoking. By limiting myself to vaping only outside, it helped to reduce my nicotine intake throughout the evening.

Is vaping or smoking worse for sleep?

Vaping may actually be worse than smoking in terms of sleep, especially if you’ve recently switched to vaping to help you quit cigarettes. The nicotine hit you receive from vaping is often more powerful, which can make you feel more awake and alert.

However, I wouldn’t switch back to smoking for all the tea in China. Vaping is significantly healthier for you than smoking and it’s also far cheaper! Only you can make that decision but I would suggest trying the suggestions in this post to improve your sleep first.