A study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine recently reported that smoking can affect the quality of a person’s sleep as well as their sleeping patterns.

Dr. Naresh M. Punjabi’s study shows that medical conditions associated with smoking, such as lung disease, can be related to conditions like sleep apnea, which makes sleep less restful. For a long time, scientists have hypothesized the theory that smoking can lead to these conditions.

People experiencing sleep apnea are short of breath throughout a night of sleeping. The condition makes the sleeper literally miss a breath multiple times during their sleep cycle.

“If smokers have sleep disturbances, smoking probably has an important contribution,” Punjabi told the Boston Globe.

UMass freshman Dennis Yip can relate his experience with smoking to this study. Yip recently quit smoking and admitted that sleeping has become “more restful and relaxing” since he quit. He said that when he did smoke, he tended to wake up feeling terribly. He also noted that when he smoked he was more susceptible to illness.

Other UMass students feel differently. Seniors Chris Sawyer and Mike Weigelt acknowledged that they normally feel well-rested after sleeping, despite being smokers.

When asked if he felt smoking could affect sleeping healthily, University of Massachusetts graduate student Mark Fleming replied that he did not think smoking was impeding on his sleep.

Fleming attributed how he feels after sleeping to the fact that he gets an average of five to six hours per night.

Those participating in the study, which consisted of 40 smokers and 40 non-smokers, were monitored with electroencephylogram (EEG) machines while they slept. The results of the observation showed that those who smoked spent more time in light sleep and less time in deep sleep.

One out of four smokers reported not getting restful sleep versus the non-smokers, of whom only five percent did not feel rested.

Lucas Correia can be reached at [email protected].