Restless sleep in young adults, and their parents/caregivers, who are smokers, e-cigarette users, or dual users

Sleep disturbance is associated with deleterious health consequences. Associations between smoking and sleep-related issues are established. Little is known about e-cigarette use, which has greatly increased, particularly in young people, and sleep health. We examine restless sleep in young adults and their parents/caregivers who are current smokers, e-cigarette users, or dual users. We use data from 5,190, 20 year-olds (YA) and their parents (Ps) from Wave 4 of Growing Up in Ireland Child Cohort. YA and their Ps (in separate questionnaires) responded to (...during the past week) “My sleep was restless” with one of: Rarely or none of the time (<1 day); Some or a little (1-2 days); Occasionally or a moderate amount (3-4 days); Most or all (5-7 days); recoded as 2 or fewer vs 3 or more days. They also reported current smoking and e-cigarette use status (daily/occasionally). Analyses were performed using SPSS v27. 21.3% (n=1,096) of young adults reported frequent restless sleep (3+ days) as did 23.6% (n=1120) of their parents. Current smoking, current e-cigarette use, and dual use rates were 37.9%, 13.4%, 9% for YA and 23%, 19.2%, 11.8% for Ps. For both groups, smoking (YA OR 1.60, CI:1.39,1.83; Ps OR 1.52, CI:1.30,1.77) and e-cigarette use (YA OR 1.67, CI:1.40,2.00); Ps OR 1.67, CI:1.43,1.97) were associated with significantly higher odds of frequent restless sleep. Also, for YA and Ps, dual users had the highest odds of disrupted sleep (YA OR 1.87, CI:1.52,2.31; P OR 1.98, CI:1.64,2.39). Smokers and e-cigarette users reported more frequent restless sleep, with dual users faring worst. The possibility of e-cigarette use resulting in sleep harm is noted and merits further study.