A paper published in the journal Cancer suggests that starting to smoke soon after waking up significantly increases the risk of lung and head and neck cancer. The study, which compared data from nearly 5,000 smokers with lung cancer, about 1,000 smokers with head and neck cancer and still healthy smokers, found that smokers who started smoking within half an hour of waking up were 60% more likely to develop head and neck cancer and 80% more likely to develop lung cancer than smokers who started smoking at least an hour after waking up. The risk of these cancers was also significantly higher for smokers who smoked within half an hour to one hour of waking up than for smokers who smoked later. If we exclude former smokers who have quit smoking, the risk of cancer is even higher for “current” smokers who smoke early in the morning. Genes have an important influence on smoking behavior, for example, the cholinergic nicotinic receptor gene 15q25 is important for smoking habits and nicotine dependence, which further influences the incidence of smoking-related cancers. Although genes do have an impact on human behavior, the social environment plays a much larger role in behavior than genes to some extent. Therefore, with determination supplemented by external environmental interventions, quitting the morning cigarette habit, or even quitting smoking, is not an impossible task. Even if a relevant susceptibility gene is present, its influence will be minimized.