Seems like one of the biggest clichés in the movies – smoking cigarettes after sex. For one thing, it’s a convenient way to signal sex without actually showing it – just show people in bed smoking cigarettes afterward.
What is this vaunted craving for tobacco that supposedly seizes people after sex? Is it for real? I don’t smoke, so I can’t imagine why it would be so attractive at that particular time. After sex, I just feel like sleeping. Why smoke?
Aside from the addictive properties of cigarettes having a smoke is associated with relaxation. After sex a smoke fulfills a mellowing-out time and is like dessert after a good meal. Personally I don’t like a smoke immediately following sex as sex (at least for me) is often strenuous exercise (not always but often enough). I need to chill for awhile after exercising before my body wants a cigarette.
That said I’ve done unscientific polls among smokers asking what time is the best for a smoke. After waking-up (first one of the day), after sex or after eating? Without fail an after meal smoke is considered the most satisfying followed by after sex and trailing far behind is the first smoke of the day.
Very well put Jeff. Oh and btw, add me to the list of people that would prefer a post-meal cig rather than any other time. 
Everybody says nicotine is relaxing. But I don’t think anything could be more relaxing than sex itself! Which is why I don’t get it.
There is also the time factor involved. Consider a pack-a-day smoker. Up at seven, asleep by eleven, gives about 14 hours of wake-time. That means (on average) a smoke about every forty minutes. Of course, we (I quit about nine months ago… do I still say ‘we’ when referring to smokers?) don’t literally have one every 40 minutes - we are at work for about eight hours a day, for example. This just moves the average time between smokes up. So unless you are getting some at work, you are generally dipping the noodle during times of increased smoking.
How long does getting it on take? Don’t forget, not just the dirty deed itself, but all of the preliminary pump priming (ya know, grooving to Alvin and the Chipmunks, mutual noogies… foreplay). So depending on the situation / couple, the whole shebang can run one to several hours. During this time, your bloodstream doesn’t give too much of a hoot what you are doing (well, it does, but that’s a different thread) all it knows is that its nicotine level is dropping sharply towards empty. So when the rock stops rolling, your body has had time to build up a nice nicotine craving.
So when all is said (loudly, if your lucky) and done, you reach for a smoke that is much more satisfying than one you light in the middle of watching the Simpsons. If you don’t smoke, I don’t think you can fully understand this. Try thinking of the difference between eating a sandwich at lunchtime, and eating a sandwich when you are reaaaaly hungry and have just finished mowing the lawn. Which do you think will taste better?
So increased craving is one reason why the smoke is better. Now, add that element to the fact that you just got some, and the smoke becomes even better (by association). OK, so now add in a bit of conditioning (after sex smoke = good) so even when you pop in for a quickie, the smoke seems that much better. Add in what some other folks have previously posted (i.e. the dessert / finality / closure aspect) and you have several reasons why after-sex smoke rocks. Ishmintingas, you just got some, you finally catch your breath in a pile of sweat soaked sheets, you are at peace with the world, you are indeed relaxed, and now you add the final touch - the relaxing activity of an after sex smoke. Mmmmmmm….
Oh, and by the way, when is someone going to get around to making a joke out of smoking in bed? I wanted to in this post but forgot to fit it in somewhere. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!
Well for me and a couple other people I know the best cigarette is the one immediatly following strenous activity. For example no smokes tastes quite as good to me as the one just after finishing a set of bench presses. It doesn’t seem to be universal, but my guess it that as the blood is screaming for oxygen, and absorbing out of the lungs as fast as it can, the drugs get into the system faster and harder, increasing the relaxing effect that the smoke has naturally.
I am a smoker and I never understood this either. I tried it a few times and didn’t care for it at all. Hell, most of the time I can’t even roll ove before going to sleep, so I’m not going to last the 4-6 minutes a cig takes!
Do I smoke after sex? I don’t know; I’ve never looked in a mirror.
You’ve been great everybody. I’ll be here all week.
Sua
I’m absolutely sure Cecil’s covered this one. But it’s not in the archives, or in the books I have handy. I gotta go searching for the rest of 'em…
Hmm. I don’t smoke, and I don’t have sex. Well heck, what on earth am I doing in here?
goes off to find a ‘why do people cry after masturbation’ thread
The only quote I remember Cece mentioning was explaining that craving for cigs were a function of the acidity of urine. Doubtful sex has much to do with that.
For the rest of it…
I think the whole “smoke after sex” thing is basically like “smoke on break” or “smoke after meal.” You’re surely not going to smoke WHILE having sex (well, I’m sure I should put a caveat there but f it). No one finds it strange that we smoke after sleep, or after eating, because those are times when we AREN’T SMOKING. eh? As a smoker, you smoke when you can, pretty much.
This is so weird. So much weirder, in fact, because I know SO MANY people who smoke immediately after exercise. What bizarro behavior … I don’t go stuff down twinkies after I finish running a few laps. Kind of defeats the purpose.