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The health risks of smoking extend beyond the person lighting the cigarette. A new study suggests children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer disrupted sleep, regardless of whether they have underlying breathing problems.
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Be’er Sheva, Israel, found that children exposed to smoke were 67 percent more likely to experience frequent disruptions during sleep, meaning their brains were repeatedly jolted awake throughout the night.
“Our study shows that secondhand smoke directly destroys pediatric sleep quality even when it doesn’t worsen the underlying physical apnea index,” the authors wrote.
“Recognizing that smoke exposure drives major sleep fragmentation allows us to provide targeted guidance and counseling for families. Eliminating tobacco smoke from a child’s environment is a completely modifiable factor that can immediately improve sleep efficiency, brain recovery, and overall pediatric health.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says children should get between nine and 14 hours of sleep, depending on their age. Yet the National Sleep Foundation has found that 44 percent of children do not consistently get the recommended amount of sleep, even before accounting for factors such as exposure to secondhand smoke.
The researchers also found that higher levels of smoke exposure were linked to shorter sleep times and lower-quality sleep overall.
Sleep Problems Linked to Smoke Exposure
The researchers monitored 30 children aged 1 to 12 who were undergoing overnight sleep studies for suspected breathing-related sleep problems.
Almost half of the children (46 percent) had at least one parent who smoked, yet 60 percent of those parents said their child was not exposed to secondhand smoke.
Rather than relying on parents’ reports, they measured exposure to secondhand smoke using cotinine, a nicotine byproduct found in the children’s urine.
The study found that children with higher levels of cotinine, a marker of nicotine exposure, tended to have poorer sleep quality. The more tobacco smoke they were exposed to, the less likely they were to get stable, continuous sleep.
Smoke exposure did not appear to worsen traditional measures of sleep apnea or oxygen levels during sleep.
Instead, it was linked directly to more fragmented and restless sleep, suggesting tobacco smoke may affect sleep through mechanisms beyond breathing problems alone.
A Common Problem for Young Children
The findings build on previous research showing that secondhand smoke remains a widespread issue for children.
Another study conducted by researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina found that 13 percent of parents of children under 2 still smoked, while 18 percent had successfully quit.
The most common reason parents gave for quitting was pregnancy, with 42 percent saying it motivated them to stop. The study also found that parents whose children had breathing or respiratory problems were no more likely to quit smoking than those whose children did not.
Parents covered by Medicaid were significantly more likely to smoke and less likely to quit than those with private health insurance.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kara Dolman and Gray R. Thomas
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