Lack of sleep puts you at higher risk of catching a cold: study

TORONTO — Want to fend off that cold everyone around you seems to be catching? Getting a good night’s rest could be the answer according to a new study that found shorter sleep duration can make you more susceptible to the common cold.

The study published in the September issue of the journal Sleep found that people who sleep less than six hours a night are four times more likely to get sick when exposed to the cold virus.

In a two-part controlled study U.S. researchers first spent a week monitoring the sleep patterns of 164 volunteers, men and women aged 18 to 55. The volunteers’ sleep patterns were assessed through wrist actigraphy, a device that often looks like a watch that determines sleep patterns by monitoring movement, and with sleep journals.

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In the second part of the study the same volunteers were administered the rhinovirus, the predominant cause of the common cold, via nasal drops. They were then quarantined for five days, and left to see whose immune system could fend off a cold. Science magazine reported the volunteers were confined to one floor of a hotel.

Prior to administering the virus researchers checked participants for high levels of the rhinovirus antibody, and removed anyone from the group who had “high, preexisting levels of the protective protein.”

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Participants were deemed sick when certain signs appeared, including measuring mucus and congestion, plus a valid immune response.

Of the 164 volunteers, 124 had been given the virus, and the rest the control. In total 48 became ill.

After comparing the sleep patterns and duration of those who caught the cold, researchers found:

• Those who slept less than five hours a night were 4.5 times more likely to get sick than people who slept seven or more hours a night;
• Those who slept between five and six hours per night were 4.2 times more likely to fall ill than participants who slept seven or more hours;
• Those who slept six to seven hours a night “were at no greater risk” at becoming ill than those who slept more than seven hours.

Just one more reason to get a good night’s sleep.