Ziyuan Chen

10 June 2018

Michele Zugnoni

UWP 01

Does Smoking Relieve Stresses

Hi, Aggie smokers, I am your friends. You guys can call me Neo. Recently, I am curious

about whether smoking will release pressure or not because whenever I drive my car passing

through the A Street, I will see some students smoking on the A Street. Also, there are many

friends around me are addicted to the cigarette. So, smoking is a common phenomenon in the

university. Some studies indicated that there is about 30% of college students smoke in past 30

days and 40% of them smoke for a year or longer (Mark Nichter, 2007). For a person who does

not like the smell of nicotine, I just cannot understand why they like to smoke. So, I am going to

conduct a two-hour observation on whether smoking release pressures or not on the A Street.

From my experience and previous conversations with my friends, they told me that

smoking cigarette is definitely a way for stress reduction. Every time they smoke, they feel like

that there is a lake inside their mind. With the inhaling and exhaling, they feel a gust of wind

blowing everything out of their mind. In this way, they forgot anything that is unpleasant or

stressful. However, based on their descriptions, I still did not believe that smoking can reduce

stress. For this question, I asked one of my teachers who smoke every day for about thirteen

years. The answer that he told me was yes. Smoking can help him focus on the task and relax.

Nevertheless, the number of people that I talked with is too small. In statistic, since the sample
size is too small, I still cannot believe that smoking will have effects on relieving pressures.

Thus, I decided to go to A Street immediately to collect more data.

Before going to the A Street, I make the null hypothesis that smoking cannot release

stress. However, based on the observation and research, I conclude that smoking can release

stress.

The reasons why I chose A Street because this is a street that near the UC Davis campus.

As we all know, UC Davis is a tobacco and smoke free university. So, students are not allowed

to smoke inside the campus area. Therefore, students who smoke like to smoking on the A Street

and attending lectures easily after smoking. This is the reason why I chose this place. When I

stepped on the A Street, I found out that there was one man standing near a Boba store and

smoking. I walked up and asked him the reason for smoking and the attitude about smoking can

release stress. Out of my expectation, I got the same answer as I got from my friends and

teachers. Smoking does release pressures. After I talked with this young man, I saw two girls

were smoking cigarette and chatting with each other. Then, I had a small conversation with them.

From the conversation, I knew that there was a major assignment due in this Friday. They were

both stressed out and just got out from the studio. They both believed that smoking is an

important way to reduce pressures. One hour passed, I observed too many students standing on

the A Street and smoking. Most of them went to lectures after smoking. At 3pm, I observed that

the number of students who smoked on the A Street increased. Thus, I made a prediction that

students who smoke will like to have cigarette after hours of classes to relieve their pressures.

For example, Mark Nichter once interviewed one engineering student who smokes every day

uses cigarette to spend the time from his residence hall to the library. The engineering student

stated that “smoking helped him relax and transition from the stressful events of the day to the
serious concentration and focus he needed for his studies” (Mark Nichter, 2007). As a result, I

think that most of the students who smoke on the A Street share the same thought with that

engineering student. Smoking is a way of transition to release pressure. To spend time between

two classes and help them to better concentrate on the next lecture. Also, aggie smokers, you

guys can go to A street to spend boring time during lectures. Thus, smoking definitely can reduce

stress level to some extent.

At the nearly the end of my observation, I met a guy that is twenty-four years old who is

a Ph.D. in UC Davis. I told him I was doing an observation on whether smoking can reduce

stress or not. He said that he started to smoke like about five years ago. The first time he smoked

was in a study group. During that time, he suffered tons of pressures from the academic study. At

that time, smoking did play a significant role in reducing stress. Like in the experiments that

Damee Choi and his teammates made, they found out that smoking does reduce the level of

arousal that causes anxiety and pressure and decreases the unpleasant feelings in a faster rate

(Damee Choi, 2015). As the time passed, now, long-term smoking causes some health problems

for him such as the difficulties in breathing. So, for him, cigarette becomes a stress-maker. The

cigarette plays double roles in stress-maker and stress-reliever. Interesting point of view, isn’t it?

So, aggie smokers, smoking is a double-edged sword. You guys should care more about health

problems while smoking. At the end of the observation, I concluded that smoking does release

stress.

To sum up, I have to say that the smoking does relieve pressures. However, this

conclusion is based on my two-hour observation at the A Street. You might hold opposite

opinions. You may say that my sample size was too small, and I didn’t put control variables, or I

might violate the random sample principle. I still expect you know some interesting stories or
facts from this topic. For those of you who want to find a way to deal with pressure, smoking

will be a way. Thank you for listening, my friends, and have a good day!
 Work Cited

Choi, Damee, et al. “Does Cigarette Smoking Relieve Stress? Evidence from the Event-

Related Potential (ERP).” Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics,

Elsevier, 20 Oct. 2015,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167876015300374?via=ihub.

Access by 22 May 2018.

Nichter, Mark, et al. “Reconsidering Stress and Smoking: A Qualitative Study Among

College Students.” Advances in Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of Medicine,

2007, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598509/. Accessed by 22 May

2018.