William Atkins
Tuesday, 13 January 2009 22:02
Science -
Health
Page 3 of 4
The researchers found that quality and quantity of sleep are important to preventing colds.
They concluded that:
• Participants with less than seven hours of sleep were 2.94 times more likely to develop a cold that participants with eight or more hours of sleep.
• Participants with a sleep efficiency (amount of actual sleep while in bed) less than 92% as opposed to those with a sleep efficiency of 98% or more were 5.50 times more likely to develop a cold.
The percentage of days that the participants felt rested did not vary with respect to when a cold was first diagnosed.
The researchers stated in their paper,
“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.”
Dr. Cohen, one of the authors of the study, stated,
“Although sleep's relationship with the immune system is well-documented, this is the first evidence that even relatively minor sleep disturbances can influence the body's reaction to cold viruses.”. [Reuters: “
Sleepless nights equal more colds in U.S. study”]
Page four contains comments from Dr. Cohen, along with statements made by the research team within their paper.
