Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health. But, the side effects of it can be unbearable. That's why so many smokers fail to quit smoking. One of those horrible side effects is insomnia. Around 2% of people who quit smoking struggle with insomnia and 80% of preexisting sleep disturbances worsened during abstinence. A lack of sleep negatively impacts so many areas of one's life, including their mood, productivity and attention. Due to these side effects, the rate of successful smoking cessation goes down. 

However, if you could find ways to overcome this insomnia, then your chances of quitting smoking could hopefully increase. Insomnia is a very common symptom, but there are ways to overcome it that don't involve starting over on all the hard work you've done. Here are tips for overcoming insomnia while giving up smoking!   

Reduce Caffeine Intake 

Smokers metabolize caffeine much faster than non-smokers, so therefore they drink more caffeine to achieve the same effect. If you quit smoking without reducing your caffeine intake, then your body will receive too much caffeine. This can lead to side effects like jitteriness, headache and irritability. 

Cutting down caffeine by almost half should give you the right amount of caffeine that you need. This way, you won't experience withdrawal or being over-caffeinated. Caffeine has detrimental effects on sleep, so it's essential to reduce your intake and not drink any past the early afternoon. 

Take off Your Nicotine Patch Before Sleeping 

Nicotine is a chemical that can have stimulatory effects on your brain. It can impact sleep, including dopamine and serotonin. When you are actively smoking, this can lead to insomnia. However, when you quit, this also leads to changes in nicotine level that make getting rest more difficult. 

Nicotine is very addictive, so in order to increase the chance of someone actually quitting, they can wear a nicotine patch and begin nicotine replacement therapy. This allows them to receive a minimal amount of nicotine without experiencing the harmful side effects of smoking. These can come in the form of patches, lozenges, and gum which can reduce cravings and make quitting more easy. 

The nicotine in these patches, however, still has the same effects on your brain and can continue to disrupt sleep. Therefore, if you are taking an NRT, make sure to remove it from your body prior to sleep. 

Follow a Relaxing Bedtime Routine 

Bedtime routines help train your brain and body for bed. By making these routine relaxing, you can decompress from the day before going to sleep. Optimal sleep requires a calm mind and body. However, the stressors of the day, including abstaining from smoking, can make sleep even harder to come by. Therefore, it's better to create a relaxing routine that you do every night before bed. 

Not only will this routine help to relax your body. But it also will help you train yourself for sleep. Certain activities you could include in your bedtime are: 

• Warm relaxing bath 
• Massage
• Herbal tea 
• Soothing music 
• Yoga or stretching 
• Reading

The most important part about your routine is to not overstimulate yourself and to try and do the same thing every single night. 

Wake and Sleep at the Same Time 

Establishing a good sleep schedule requires you to go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday - even on the weekends. Smoking can affect your body's circadian rhythm, or its natural time clock. This is the part of your brain that tells you when it's time to go to bed and wake up. When you stop smoking, your clock may get off, and you may begin to feel sluggish, or feel too alert to go to sleep.

Establishing a regular bedtime may take some work. It requires you to set an alarm and get up when it goes off, and set a bedtime and stick to it no matter what you're doing. This is made easier by sleeping in an optimal environment that is cool, cleen, quiet, and very dark. 

Reduce Nightly Screen Time 

Screen time is an issue for sleep because the light from the screen can interrupt the production of melatonin. Melatonin is the sleep hormone of the body, and it is managed by the eye's exposure to light. When light hits the back of the eye, the brain stops making melatonin, and when it gets dark, the brain begins to produce melatonin and signal your body that it's time for bed. 

Screen time interrupts this process because the blue light is similar to the type of light that is emitted by the sun. Therefore it confuses the brain which stops producing melatonin, making it more difficult to fall asleep. You should stop using screens an hour before bed, or make sure all of your devices are on night bed so they don't emit so much light. 

Eat More Melatonin-Producing Foods 

Melatonin is produced by the breakdown of an amino acid called tryptophan. Tryptophan is found in poultry, cheeses, fish, nuts, seeds, and soy products. When tryptophan is metabolized by the body, it forms melatonin. 

By naturally consuming foods that can turn into melatonin, you augment the amount of sleep hormone that is in your body. It's important to not consume these foods too close to bedtime because your stomach may be upset, which will ruin your sleep. Also, if you are lactose intolerant, make sure to avoid dairy to close to bedtime as well. 

Avoid Alcohol

Alcohol is a sedative, but it is not conducive for sleep. Although you may feel sleepy after drinking, you actually get poor quality sleep throughout the night. That's why after a night of heavy drinking you still feel groggy and sluggish. No matter how long you were sleep, the quality was so poor, you just don't feel rested. 

This is because alcohol interrupts the phase of your sleep that is required to feel rested. You don't get rapid eye movement, or REM sleep after drinking. Without this stage, many of the vital functions of sleep don't happen. Restrict your alcohol use and caffeine in take if you really want to get a good night's rest.  

Exercise

The relationship between sleep and exercise is a positive one where they both influence the other. When you exercise you can improve your sleep, and when you get good sleep, you have better workouts. It can be tough building up your stamina after smoking, especially if you were a heavy, long-term smoker. 

However, exercising is going to be really important for improve cardiovascular health and lung function back to pre-nicotine levels. You may never reach those levels, but striving to do so can help reduce your risk of long-term complications. Exercise also increases your sleep pressure, or how tired you are by the end of the day. The higher that is, the faster you will fall asleep and the better you will fall asleep. 

It's important to avoid exercising at least an hour before bed. You want to give your heart time to come down so you are not too stimulated to go to bed. 

Avoid Napping

Napping can be detrimental to your sleep efforts. You may feel extremely tired during the day after giving up cigarettes. However, going to sleep during the day will interfere with your ability to go to sleep at night. If you are going to take a nap because you are just that tired,then power naps are the key, and they need to happen earlier in the day.

The optimal duration for a nap is anywhere from 10-30 minutes. Past that, you interrupt a sleep cycles which can lead to grogginess and moodiness. If you are going to sleep longer than 30 minutes, it needs to be around 90-minutes, which is the full sleep cycle. However, doing this often is not recommended as it can interfere with your establishment of a normal sleep-wake cycle at night. 

Therapy 

If you seemed to have tried everything, and it's just not working, then you may want to consider therapy. There is a specific therapy for insomnia, called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Insomnia (CBT-I). CBT-I is effective because it combines cognitive therapy with behavioral interventions to target both the mind and body components of insomnia. 

Cognitive therapy is used to help identify and change negative beliefs about sleep and insomnia. Relaxation techniques, like meditation, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation are things that you can learn to help you improve your sleep. Sleep hygiene focuses on the behaviors you do right before it's time to go to sleep and the environment in which you sleep. 

If you are someone who struggles with getting a good night's rest, please click the orange button below to take a free online sleep test and talk with one of our sleep health professionals as soon as possible.

https://www.verywellmind.com/ways-relieve-insomnia-when-quit-smoking-2824683