Smoking doesn’t only affect your respiratory health. According to Science Daily, it may also disrupt sleep.

Based on a study of a large nationally representative sample, experts from the University of Florida and Research Triangle Park found that approximately 11.9 percent of smokers have sleeping problems, while 10.6 percent wake up in the middle of the night and 9.5 percent wake up too early in the morning.

According to the researchers, every stick subtracts 1.2 minutes from a person’s total number of sleeping hours. For a pack of 20 cigarettes, that makes 24 minutes lost--a big difference for those having sleeping issues.

As lack of sleep has been known to cause obesity and increase the risk of mental health problems such as anxiety, the study suggests that smokers may be more prone to such conditions. So if you smoke and you frequently toss and turn at night, stop. When you get improved sleep, you’re sure to get better waking hours.

(Photo by Kari Söderholm via Flickr Creative Commons)