Smoking cessation is the most effective way to reduce the risks of smoking-related harms, but quitting is challenging for many smokers. One of the factors that influences smoking and quitting behavior is mood.
Mood is a complex and dynamic psychological state that reflects the emotional tone of a person's experience. Mood can affect smoking and quitting behavior in various ways, such as motivation, craving, withdrawal, coping, and relapse.
In a recent article, investigators evaluated the relationship between affective (mood) states and smoking urges later in the day (Benson L, Chen M, De La Torre I, Hébert ET, Alexander A, Ra CK, Kendzor DE, Businelle MS. Associations between morning affect and later-day smoking urges and behavior. Psychol Addict Behav. 2023 Dec 14. doi: 10.1037/adb0000970. PMID: 38095939). They randomized 63 smokers into one of three smoking cessation interventions and asked them to complete surveys during the day.
Researchers observed that on days when participants experienced higher than average positive mood, their urges to smoke later in the day were lower. Conversely, on days when participant mood was more negative, urges later in the day were higher and smoking was more likely.
They also observed that individuals with higher moods characteristically had less intense later-day smoking urges, and those with more negative moods had greater later-day smoking urges.
Apart from clinically significant mood disorders, such as depression, which need to be addressed first and foremost, some of us may think that we cannot really control our mood in the morning and therefore we cannot impact this. But is that true?
Consider days when we had poor sleep, for whatever reason, and what our moods are like on those mornings compared to those days when we had good sleep and awakened refreshed. So maybe the question might be, how can we improve sleep?
As a general internist, I have a lot of patients who sleep poorly. When I talk about “sleep hygiene” they usually give me a quizzical look. But there are proven effective methods that improve sleep, which include:
- avoiding alcohol
- minimizing light and sound
- controlling room temperature
- keeping a bedtime routine
- managing stress
- refrain from actively trying to sleep
[Mayo Clinic Q and A: 5 ways to get better sleep - Mayo Clinic News Network].
Wearable technologies can also help us track our sleep and help us gain an understanding about how to improve our sleep. Books are available that many patients find helpful (e.g., No More Sleepless Nights by Peter Hauri).
In my 27 years of clinical experience, how we feel in the morning has much to do with how we slept the night before. Unwinding our struggle with cigarettes may very well start with improving our sleep.
