Insomnia in adults: The impact of earlier cigarette smoking from adolescence to adulthood

Objectives: This study examined the role of cigarette smoking beginning in adolescence and extending to the fifth decade of life on insomnia at an average age of 43 years in the Children and Adults in the Community Study. Methods: Participants were originally assessed in 1983 and came from a community-based random sample of individuals living in 2 upstate New York counties. Participants were assessed over 7 waves of data collection that spanned approximately 29 years, from mean ages 14.1 years (T2) to 42.9 years (T8). We classified the longitudinal trajectories of cigarette use. Five cigarette use trajectory groups were identified: heavy/continuous smokers, late starters, occasional smokers, quitters/decreasers, and nonsmokers. Results: The result of the logistic regression analysis of adult insomnia for the Bayesian posterior probability of the heavy/continuous smokers when compared with the Bayesian posterior probability of nonsmokers was statistically significant-adjusted odds ratio of 3.35 [95% confidence interval (1.06-10.56; P < 0.05)]-after adjustment for control variables. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of heavy chronic smoking as contributing to insomnia. Clinicians should focus their efforts on smoking prevention and treatment of younger individuals, as well as promoting cessation among older adult smokers to decrease the likelihood of insomnia.