Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site gatech.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gatech!carter
From: carter@gatech.UUCP (Carter Bullard)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Side effects of quitting cigarettes
Message-ID: <11148@gatech.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Dec-84 11:33:35 EST
Article-I.D.: gatech.11148
Posted: Wed Dec  5 11:33:35 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 06:57:19 EST
References: <302@ll1.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: School of ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Lines: 35

The "side effects" that you are experiencing are indeed very
common.  I also experienced the same alterations in sleep 
patterns that you describe, but the caffiene reactions are 
alittle more pronounced than what I remember.

Withdrawl from chronic nicotine exposure produces a reflexive
increase in ascending reticular activating system( ARAS ) responsiveness
that lasts for a considerable time ( ~ 2-4 weeks ).  The ARAS's
increase in activity follows from Cannon's Law and is an attempt to
maintain the level of CNS stimulation that was provided by the
nicotine.  As a result, the ARAS becomes hyper-resonsive, 
resulting in an inability to maintain stage 2 (or stage 1, depending
on who you use as an authority) sleep during REM (this does not 
produce REM deprivation, as one might expect).  

However, it really isn't that simple.  Nicotine is not only a CNS and
PNS (peripheral nervous system) stimulant, but it also is an incredible
neuronal inhibitor.  There is an entire class of neuronal receptors, found
predominately in autonomic ganglia, skeletal muscle and of course the
hippocampus, midbrain, brainstem  and cerebral cortex, that are affected by
nicotine.  These nicotinic receptors(in contrast to muscarinic receptors) 
are, upon initial exposure to nicotine, intensely stimulated but then within 
a few minutes are completely inhibited. 

So you can see that it probably gets pretty hairy when youv'e been
smoking for a couple of years, and the timing between excitation and
inhibition gets really complex.



-- 
Carter Bullard
ICS, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:Carter @ Gatech	ARPA:Carter.Gatech @ CSNet-relay.arpa
uucp:...!{akgua,allegra,amd,ihnp4,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!carter