Poor sleep leads to more colds

By at 11:45 am Monday, Jan 19

The LA Times reports on a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that found "people who sleep less than seven hours a night appear to be almost three times as likely to catch a cold as those who sleep eight hours or more."
There was a graded association with average sleep duration: 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. The association with sleep efficiency was also graded: participants with less than 92% efficiency were 5.50 times (95% CI, 2.08-14.48) more likely to develop a cold than those with 98% or more efficiency. These relationships could not be explained by differences in prechallenge virus-specific antibody titers, demographics, season of the year, body mass, socioeconomic status, psychological variables, or health practices. The percentage of days feeling rested was not associated with colds.

Conclusion Poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding exposure to a rhinovirus were associated with lower resistance to illness.

Fighting a cold? Every bit of sleep counts

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Mark Frauenfelder

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