Sleep And The Common Cold

To sleep, perchance to dream, or perhaps just to ward of another cold. Roni Caryn Rabin, writing in the New York Times, reports that researchers at the University of California, San Francisco are convinced that sleep plays an important role in regulating the immune system, which is our best defense against the common cold. The researchers studied the health histories of 164 men and women aged 18 to 55, and measured the subjects’ normal sleep habits for a week. Then they put them up in a hotel and gave them nasal drops containing the cold virus. Ready? The envelope please….The researchers found that those who slept less than six hours a night the week before the exposure were 4.2 times more likely to catch the cold compared with those who got more than seven hours of sleep. Those who slept less than five hours a night were 4.5 times more likely to catch the cold. Good night.