Home
Newsletter
Events
Blogs
Reports
Graphics
RSS
About Us
Support
Write for Us
Media Info
Advertising Info
Sleep disorders

Insufficient Sleep Triples Risk of Catching Cold

Monday, February 23, 2009 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: sleep disorders, health news, Natural News


Most Viewed Articles
https://www.naturalnews.com/025705_sleep_risk_research.html
Delicious
diaspora
Print
Email
Share

(NaturalNews) A person's risk of becoming sick after exposure to a cold virus drastically increases the less sleep they get, according to a study conducted by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"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," researcher Sheldon Cohen said. "It provides yet another reason why people should make time in their schedules to get a complete night of rest."

The researchers conducted their experiment on 75 women and 78 men, all of them healthy and between the ages of 18 and 55. All participants were interviewed on their sleep habits once a day for two weeks, reporting how many hours they slept per night as well as how quickly they fell asleep. The researchers then dripped cold viruses into the nostrils of each participant and sequestered them in a hotel room for five days to see who would get sick.

The researchers found that people who slept an average of less than seven hours per night were 2.94 times more likely to develop cold symptoms than people who slept eight or more hours a night. People who spent more time tossing and turning – defined as spending more than 8 percent of their time in bed awake – were 5.5 times more likely to develop symptoms.

Cohen noted that the current study is one of the first to look at the effect of sleep on the immune systems of healthy people.

"Experiments that explore the relationship between sleep and immune function often involve sleep deprivation or study subjects with sleep disorders, which are often rooted in psychiatric conditions that influence other aspects of health," he said. "This research points to the role played by ordinary, real-life sleep habits in healthy persons."

Sources for this story include: uk.reuters.com; media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com.

Receive Our Free Email Newsletter

Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more.


comments powered by Disqus



Natural News Wire (Sponsored Content)

Science.News
Science News & Studies
Medicine.News
Medicine News and Information
Food.News
Food News & Studies
Health.News
Health News & Studies
Herbs.News
Herbs News & Information
Pollution.News
Pollution News & Studies
Cancer.News
Cancer News & Studies
Climate.News
Climate News & Studies
Survival.News
Survival News & Information
Gear.News
Gear News & Information
Glitch.News
News covering technology, stocks, hackers, and more