Associations Between Cigarette Smoking and Poor Sleep Among Adults With a Lifetime Cancer Diagnosis

Poor sleep is associated with cigarette smoking and cancer diagnosis, but little is known about the contribution of smoking to poor sleep following a cancer diagnosis.

Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 6183), multivariable Poisson regression models estimated the associations between lifetime cancer diagnosis, cigarette smoking, and poor sleep, controlling for covariates and evaluating interactions between smoking and cancer diagnosis.

Among adults, 11.6% reported a lifetime cancer diagnosis, and 13.3% of those reported current cigarette smoking. Adults with a cancer diagnosis who smoked had a higher prevalence of inappropriate sleep duration (Adjusted Prevalence Ratio, APR: 2.29, 95% CI: 1.03, 5.13) and snorting/stop breathing (APR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.41) than those without a cancer diagnosis who don't smoke.

Smoking among adults with a lifetime cancer diagnosis is correlated with poor sleep, highlighting the need for targeted smoking cessation interventions to improve sleep health in this population.