Day 5 after quitting vapingNights, and a myth about coffee

By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min read

What's happening in your body

Taking nicotine away disturbs sleep before it improves it. Broken sleep is one of the recognised nicotine withdrawal symptoms, and in the six-day vaping studies it rose with the rest. A review of sleep research also found that nicotine suppresses dreaming sleep while it is being used, which fits the vivid dreams many people report once it stops. You may meet the advice to halve your coffee when you quit.

That advice belongs to cigarettes. It is the products of burning tobacco that speed up the enzyme which clears caffeine. Nicotine does not, so your coffee is exactly as strong as it was last week.

What to expect

Waking at three or four, alert, sometimes with a craving attached. If the vape lived on the bedside table, the night used to include a few puffs, and the body still expects them. Feeling underslept by lunchtime, which makes everything else seem worse. For most people sleep settles over the next couple of weeks along with the rest of the withdrawal. If it is still badly broken after a few weeks, mention it to a doctor.

What else you could do

Your usual caffeine is fine, but have the last cup before noon while sleep is fragile. If you have been awake for more than twenty minutes, get up and read in another room until you feel sleepy. Keep the bedroom dark and cool, and the phone and anything vape-shaped out of reach.

Sources. Sleep disturbance as part of withdrawal, measured in vapers: Hughes et al., 2020. Sleep mechanism measured in smokers, the mechanism is nicotine: Jaehne A, Loessl B, Bárkai Z, Riemann D, Hornyak M. Effects of nicotine on sleep during consumption, withdrawal and replacement therapy. Sleep Med Rev, 2009. Caffeine: Zevin S, Benowitz NL. Drug interactions with tobacco smoking. Clin Pharmacokinet, 1999.