Study: Getting 8 hours of sleep prevents common cold

Not looking to live your life in a bubble or wearing a medical mask in order to prevent illness? A new study says if you get your sleep, you lower your risk of the common cold. Immunity impacts health, sleep impacts immunity and now there is proof.

In a multi-university study designed to see if nightly "zzzz's" have any correlation to our health, the results are in and the conclusion may disturb the circadian rhythms of many. Following over 150 healthy young and middle aged men and women for a specified period, monitoring their sleep patterns, sleep efficiency and actual feeling of rest felt following sleeping, scores were assigned to the study participants based on their individual related sleep variables. They were then quarantined and drops of a common cold virus were placed in their nostrils, where they were monitored again for 5 days following the clinical exposure, looking for signs of the common cold. What did they find? According to the Archives of Internal Medicine:

participants with less than 7 hours of sleep were 2.94 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18-7.30) more likely to develop a cold than those with 8 hours or more of sleep.

Essentially, if you are catching less than 7 hours a night, you are nearly three times as likely to catch the common cold. What is also important is the quality of sleep a person obtains, which means if the 7 hours are restful then the benefits are greater. In fact, participants with less than 92 percent efficient sleep were five and a half times more likely to "catch" the cold virus. Sleep quality is thought to be an important predictor of immunity and, in turn, susceptibility to the common cold. This article examines whether sleep duration and efficiency in the weeks preceding viral exposure are associated with cold susceptibility. The study also revealed that with those who contracted the cold virus, the virus could:

not be explained by differences in prechallenge virus-specific antibody, demographics, season of the year, body mass, socioeconomic status, psychological variables, or health practices.

An article on insider medicine discussed some tips on how to take in a few extra hours, maximizing both your sleep time and immunity. The bottom line is that restful and appropriate sleep is necessary for the body to develop and maintain a healthy immune system. Or, you can sleep in "rest" bytes and stay away from germ factories such as schools, churches, public places and the biggest contributor...kids. If sleep isn't your thing then you could wear one of those fashionable blue masks. The article was published in the January 12, 2009 Vol. 169 No. 1 of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a peer reviewed journal.