In recent years, many consumers moved from traditional forms of consuming tobacco to vaping, often because vaping appears to be a safer way to get a nicotine fix than smoking or from other tobacco products. However, as the medical community learns more about the dangers of vaping, new information shows that vaping is not a “safe” activity.
In the last year, we’ve seen news reports of serious respiratory illnesses related to vaping, often developing much more quickly than similar issues reported by tobacco smokers. If this was not enough to cast doubt on the safety of vaping products, new research now indicates that vaping may seriously impact users’ ability to sleep.
If you use vaping products and experience difficulty sleeping, it is wise to consider how vaping may impact your ability to sleep at the proper time and remain alert throughout your waking hours. Severe sleep disruption not only affects your body’s ability to regulate itself and fight off illnesses, it also may place you in dangerous situations, especially if you handle dangerous materials or operate machinery regularly. Be sure to consider these issues carefully, to keep your health and your rights protected.
Vaping and sleep disruption
Vaping is an effective way to deliver concentrated hits of nicotine to the body, which easily leads to physical dependency on nicotine itself. When a person develops a physical dependency, their body reacts negatively when their nicotine levels get too low.
While awake, it is easy to take another hit from a vape product to ease the body’s urge for nicotine. However, when a user sleeps, their body continues to respond to low levels of nicotine, and the body may wake itself up in order to meet its nicotine needs.
Over time, a person may believe that they simply cannot sleep, unaware that their bodies have a dependency on nicotine even while they sleep. Sleep deprivation is dangerous in the long term, weakening the immune system as well as the user’s ability to think clearly and make wise decisions throughout the day. Many serious or deadly accidents occur because sleep-deprived individuals got behind the wheel of a vehicle or operated heavy machinery and caused an accident. Those who believe that sleep deprivation is not particularly dangerous may find out that they were very wrong.
Protecting yourself from harm
If you believe that vaping has physically harmed you, or if you were injured because of vaping-related sleep deprivation, you may need to file a legal claim to seek fair compensation and protect your rights.
Building a strong claim takes time and resources, so it is important to begin the process immediately (if you have not already done so). With a claim underway, you can use the tools that the law provides to keep your rights and priorities secure while you work toward recovery.
