Common cold: a simple tip to avoid catching a cold
People who lack sleep are four times more likely to catch a cold than those who get long enough nights of rest.
Scientists carried out their study on 164 volunteers. They agreed to be exposed to cold viruses and recorded their sleep patterns. The subjects underwent a prior medical examination and answered questionnaires so that the researchers could better take into account certain factors such as their stress, their character or the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes.
Their sleep patterns were measured during the week before the start of the study, for which they were to stay confined in a hotel room. There, the scientists administered the cold virus to them through nasal drops and took samples daily for a week to see if the virus was growing.
Less than 6 hours of sleep per night increases the risk
The results showed that those who slept less than six hours a night in the previous week were 4.2 times more likely to catch a cold than those who got more than seven hours of sleep. Volunteers who slept less than five hours per night are even 4.5 times more likely to get sick.
