Background: Nicotine, by its impact on several neurotransmitter systems, influences sleep. Sleep disturbance is a common symptom in different psychiatric disorders and there is a high prevalence of smoking in psychiatric patients.
Methods: Systematic literature search.
Results: Symptoms of insomnia are observed during nicotine consumption and its withdrawal. The effects of therapeutic nicotine substitution after smoking cessation on sleep are often masked by withdrawal symptoms. Depressive non-smokers experience an improvement of mood under nicotine administration and in turn, depressive symptoms and sleep impairment during nicotine withdrawal have a negative impact on abstinence rates.
Conclusion: Sleep disturbance is a comorbid risk factor influencing abstinence during smoking cessation. In depressive patients the complex relationship between affect, sleep, nicotine consumption and its withdrawal should be carefully monitored. In such subgroups of smokers willing to quit this has to be taken care of in therapeutic interventions.