Sleep and the Common Cold
New research has found evidence for what many people have long believed: getting good night's sleep is related to your resistance to the common cold. The study, Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers studied 153 volunteers and measured how long they slept (sleep duration) and how rested they felt (sleep efficiency). After 14 days the participants were then exposed to the human rhinovirus that causes the common cold. Those who slept less than seven hours a night were almost three times as likely to catch a cold as those who slept eight hours or more. Those with a lower level of sleep efficiency were also significantly more likely to catch the cold.
The researchers concluded:
As always, correlation does not necessarily mean causality.
Researchers studied 153 volunteers and measured how long they slept (sleep duration) and how rested they felt (sleep efficiency). After 14 days the participants were then exposed to the human rhinovirus that causes the common cold. Those who slept less than seven hours a night were almost three times as likely to catch a cold as those who slept eight hours or more. Those with a lower level of sleep efficiency were also significantly more likely to catch the cold.
The researchers concluded:
"Poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding exposure to a rhinovirus were associated with lower resistance to illness"
As always, correlation does not necessarily mean causality.
