title: Cigarette smoking as a risk factor or an exacerbating factor for restless legs syndrome and sleep bruxism.
abstract: Cigarette smoking has been associated with sleep disturbances. However, little is known about how smoking affects restless legs syndrome (RLS) and sleep bruxism, two movement disorders associated with sleep. From a nationwide survey of 2,019 Canadian adults, we estimated the prevalence of smoking to be 36%. Although there was no difference between smokers and nonsmokers for RLS prevalence, almost twice as many smokers (12%) as nonsmokers (7%) were aware of experiencing sleep bruxism. The estimated risk of a smoker suffering from RLS was nonsignificant. On the other hand, the risk of a smoker grinding his or her teeth was moderate (odds ratio = 1.9). Analysis of sleep laboratory findings revealed no differences in motor RLS and periodic leg movements in sleep (PLMS) indices between smoking and nonsmoking patients; after adjustment for age, there were no differences in sleep efficiency, latency, number of awakenings, or the arousal index for the RLS/PLMS patients. Among those suffering from bruxism, smokers had more tooth-grinding episodes than did nonsmokers (35.0 vs. 7.0; p = 0.056); none of the sleep variables differentiated sleep bruxism smokers from nonsmokers. It appears that cigarette smoking does not influence RLS/PLMS, whereas the risk that smoking and tooth grinding are concomitant is moderate. Smoking was not significantly associated with more motor activity in RLS/PLMS, but more grinding was noted in sleep bruxism.
authors.affiliation: Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Lavigne
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lobbezoo
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Rompré
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Montplaisir
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D002012:Bruxism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012148:Restless Legs Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000453:epidemiology