Research has shown that getting enough sleep each night is associated with good health. A new study confirms this by stating that little sleep (6 hours or less) quadruples the risk of catching the common cold . The work has been published in the journal Sleep .
Having good sleep habits can reduce the risk of flu and colds , so common in times of low temperatures, according to the conclusions of a team of scientists from the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences of Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. (USA) together with experts from the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
To reach this resolution, the researchers had the participation of 164 people . All of them were subjected to health checks, questionnaires and personal interviews for two months to define factors such as cigarette and alcohol consumption, stress level or mood. In the same way, they took note of their sleep patterns using a sensor that measured the duration and quality of sleep throughout the night .
After this step, the volunteers were taken to a hotel where they were administered, through nasal drops, the virus that causes the common cold. The scientists monitored the participants’ health for a week, while taking daily mucus samples . Analysis of the samples revealed that those who had slept less than 6 hours were 4.2 times more prone to colds, compared to those who slept more than 7 hours .
“ Sleep goes beyond all the other factors that were measured. It didn’t matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education, or income . It didn’t matter if they were smokers. With all those things taken into account, statistically, sleep was still the winner and was an overwhelmingly strong predictor of susceptibility to the cold virus, ”explains Aric Prather, leader of the study.
The conclusions of the study show that sleep should be an important part of recommended public health measures along with exercise and diet . “In our busy culture, there is still a fair amount of pride about not having to sleep and getting a ton of work done. We need more studies like this one to begin to convey to homes that sleep is a fundamental part of our well-being ”, clarifies Prather.
