Quit vaping timeline · Day 2
Day 2 of quitting vaping: the roughest night
Last reviewed July 2026
A lot of people expect day 1 to be the low point and are caught off guard when night 2 is worse. Nicotine interferes with the sleep cycle, and by the second night your body is running without it for the first full stretch of unconscious hours. Restless sleep or vivid, sometimes strange dreams about vaping are common here, and neither means anything has gone wrong.
What's happening
If your last vape of the day used to happen right before bed, night 2 is often the first time that specific ritual goes unanswered while you're also already running on a short first night's rest. The combination tends to make day 2 feel worse than day 1, even though you're technically further along.
What you might notice
- Trouble falling asleep, or waking up more than usual. Common and temporary.
- Unusually vivid dreams, sometimes about vaping itself. A widely reported quirk of early nicotine withdrawal.
- Feeling more tired than day 1 despite having slept. A rough night compounds with ongoing withdrawal.
- A shorter fuse than yesterday. Poor sleep and withdrawal both affect mood, and they stack.
Tonight is the setup for tomorrow
Day 3 tends to be the toughest day overall, and it usually follows a rough night 2. Protecting sleep tonight, even if it's imperfect, gives you a better starting point for tomorrow than pushing through on no rest at all.
How to get through tonight
- Build a new wind-down step to replace the old one. If vaping was your last act before bed, put something else in that exact slot: tea, a few pages of a book, a short walk.
- Skip caffeine after early afternoon. Withdrawal already makes sleep lighter; caffeine stacks on top of that.
- Don't fight a strange dream in the morning. If you wake up having dreamed about vaping, it's a known part of the process, not a signal you want to relapse.
- Keep the device out of the bedroom, out of the house if you can. A 3am reach for something on the nightstand is the easiest slip to make and the easiest one to prevent.
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Why is sleep worse on day 2 of quitting vaping?
Nicotine affects the sleep cycle, and its absence can disrupt the deeper stages of sleep for the first several nights. Many people also nicotine-vaped right before bed as part of a wind-down routine, so night 2 is often the first time that specific trigger goes unanswered.
Is it normal to dream about vaping when quitting?
Yes. Vivid dreams about smoking or vaping are a widely reported experience in the first week or two of quitting nicotine. They usually fade as the withdrawal period passes and don't indicate anything is going wrong.
Should I nap during the day if quitting is disrupting my sleep?
A short nap can help if the previous night was rough, but a long one can make the next night's sleep harder to fall into. Keep it brief and earlier in the day if you can.
Sources: CDC, e-cigarettes and nicotine · NHS, quit smoking and vaping support