This article looks at the effect of sleep duration on catching a common cold
What’s the deal?
Sleep is very important for our health. A lack of sleep has been linked to poor health and may also increase the chance of developing infections, but is this true for the common cold?
What did they do?
164 volunteers were given a nasal spray containing the common cold virus. Volunteers then quarantined for 5 days, wore a wrist-based sleep monitor and kept a sleep diary.
What happened?
Volunteers with shorter average sleep durations (less than 6 hours) were up to 4.5 times more likely to develop clinical symptoms of a common cold compared to those who slept for more than 7 hours on average.
What can you tell me about the people?
All volunteers were healthy and were aged between 18 to 55 years. There were 94 men and 70 women.
What else should I know?
We are exposed to the common cold virus almost every day, but it doesn’t mean that we will always go on to get a full cold. This seems to also be true for covid-19, so could adequate sleep be important for preventing covid-19 symptoms?
What will I do differently?
I tend to sleep for about 7.5 to 8 hours per night and luckily for me I rarely get a cold, maybe once or twice every other year. It could be a coincidence, or it could be that adequate sleep is the answer. Either way, I’ll continue to get my sleep.
Acknowledgements
This research was published in September 2015 by AA Prather and colleagues from the University of California, USA.
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