Is Sleep Stopping Smokers From Quitting?

Nov. 17 - KGO (KGO) -- You'll never know the difficulty of quitting smoking until you try it. Among the side effects, a lack of sleep that leads to all kinds of difficulties. But now, doctors have begun a new study to ease the transition and they're looking for volunteers.

In a non-descript lab at SRI International, they're looking to attract a few good smokers.

Two decades ago, Dr. Gary Swan lost his mother in law to a smoking related cancer. Now he and Dr. Ian Colrain have begun a clinical trial of smokers trying to break their addiction.

Studies show that half the people who try to quit smoking do not succeed. They may last three hours, or three days, or three weeks, or months but eventually they fail and much of that has to do with a lack of sleep.

ABC7's Wayne Freedman: "The cumulative effect is?"

Dr. Ian Colrain, Ph.D., SRI sleep researcher: "Being tired and grumpy the next day. Your performance goes down. Your moods go bad. And you know how to fix tired and grumpy? You go back to smoking."

Deborah Birce, a nurse from Hayward, knew the pattern all too well.

Deborah Birce, quitting smoking: "It was difficult falling asleep. And though I was asleep, apparently, it didn't feel like I was asleep."

She was among the first of several hundred volunteers to wire up, quit smoking and then spend five nights in a bedroom at SRI as doctors examine her brain waves.

Dr. Ian Colrain, SRI sleep researcher: "Just knowing they don't sleep is well worth doing. Knowing how to improve it is the next thing."

Among the unanswered questions? Do anti-depressants ease a people's quitting or just keep them awake?

The study will look at both physical and psychological reactions.

Deborah Birce, quitting smoking: "When I get in my car, have a cup of coffee, they trigger you to old behaviors."

Deborah has gone three weeks now without a cigarette. Three big weeks after 27 years of smoking. She still has cravings, but&

Deborah Birce, quitting smoking: "I just started realizing after quitting that I don't even know how to live without smoking because I did it for so long."

Maybe the hard part is now behind her.

Related Link: SRI International

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