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Smoking immediately after waking up increases cancer risks
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Some people start their morning not with breakfast or a cup of aromatic coffee, but with a cigarette. Recent research by scientists has shown that the habit of taking a drag right after a night's rest can have a detrimental effect on health. It is the cigarette smoked on an empty stomach in the morning that can be more dangerous than all the others smoked during the day.
In the course of two recent studies, a group of scientists discovered that a cigarette smoked immediately after waking up increases the risk of developing lung cancer, as well as head and neck cancer. Scientists note that the bodies of morning smokers had higher levels of nicotine and other toxic substances. Scientists do not rule out the fact that such people are more dependent on the bad habit than those who can go 30 minutes or longer without smoking.
The researchers wanted to find out why only some smokers develop cancer and decided to establish whether there is a connection between the development of oncology and morning smoking. In their study, the specialists focused on the habit of smoking a cigarette immediately after waking up, regardless of how long a person has been smoking and how many cigarettes a day they smoke.
In their first study, the scientists analyzed the condition of about five thousand patients suffering from lung cancer and about three thousand heavy smokers who had not been diagnosed with serious diseases. As it turned out during the research, a person who smoked his first cigarette of the day within 30 minutes after a night's rest, almost doubled the risk of developing lung cancer, in contrast to those who could do without a cigarette for at least an hour after a night's sleep.
Smokers who preferred to smoke a cigarette half an hour to an hour after sleep had a 1.3-fold increased risk of developing lung cancer than those who could abstain from morning smoking for at least an hour.
Another study was conducted to analyze the condition of patients suffering from head and neck cancer. The study involved slightly more than 1,000 patients with this form of oncology and about 800 smokers who did not suffer from oncology. As a result of the analysis, scientists found that smokers who smoked a cigarette within the first hour after waking up, increased their chances of developing head and neck cancer by one and a half times, in contrast to those who could do without cigarettes for at least an hour after a night's rest. At the same time, scientists found that smokers who smoked a cigarette 30-60 minutes after waking up had 1.4 times more chances of developing these forms of cancer, in contrast to those smokers who could hold out for more than 60 minutes before smoking a cigarette.
As the researchers themselves believe, this project can help in identifying smokers who are at risk for developing cancer, in particular of the lungs, neck, and head.
In addition, the research team noted that the bad habit can lead to serious illnesses regardless of what time of day cigarettes are smoked.
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