Electronic cigarettes or commonly known as Vapes, have seen a substantial increase in use from an estimated 100,000 people in 2016 to an estimated 700,000 people in in 2022-2023 in Australia alone (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2024). While long-term adverse effects are currently unknown, it is shown short-term effects include cough, irritation of the throat, nausea and associated lung injury. With this increase, studies had shown a steadily declining trend in the use of tobacco smoking, although the increase with Vape use also raises concern due to the unknown long-term effects.
Vapes and e-cigarettes contain different levels of nicotine, which creates a highly addictive factor for all users creating a bidirectional relationship between use and desire. Due to the easy accessibility of vape devices, this addiction carries across into sleep hygiene as most people can carry their devices into bed with them. Large amounts of nicotine levels before sleep is associated with brain stimulation and reduces the need for sleep. Moreover, when asleep, your body may need an extra dose of nicotine that may induce prolonged wakefulness due to the addictive nature of nicotine.
As teenagers and adults require 8-10 hours of sleep at night to be able to allow the body to perform its rest and digest process, the increase of vape use has since seen most young adults not reaching this threshold, ultimately resulting in poor sleep hygiene exacerbated by increased screen time. Researchers had found that those using vaping products we 1.33 times more likely to have less than the recommended 8 hours sleep when compared to non-users (Webster, 2025).
It is encouraged to create healthy sleep hygiene routine; this can be done by placing vapes in a drawer or far away from the bedside where it cannot be accessible and replacing this habit by breathing exercises or gentle stretching before bed and having a time for lights out to help induce sleep. Ultimately, ceasing the use of vapes is most sought, however this is not as easy for most users because of the addictive nature and should also be considered.
References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024, July 2). Australia’s health 2024: data insights: Electronic cigarette use (vaping) in Australia in 2022–2023. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/vaping-e-cigarett
Webster, N. (2025, January 26). Is vaping causing a new wave of sleep disorders? The National. https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2025/01/26/is-vaping-causing-a-new-wave-of-sleep-disorders/
