Scientists have long known that sleep is important for health. A study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that people who sleep 6 hours a night or less are 4 times more likely to catch a cold when exposed to the virus, compared to those who spend more than 7 hours a night in sleep.
This is the first study to use objective sleep measures to connect people’s natural sleep habits and their risk of getting sick, according to Aric Prather, PhD, assistant professor of Psychiatry at UCSF and lead author of the study. The findings add to the growing evidence of the importance of sleep for our health, he said.
"Short sleep was more important than any other factor in predicting subjects’ likelihood of catching cold," Prather said. "It didn’t matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education or income. It didn’t matter if they were a smoker. With all those things taken into account, statistically sleep still carried the day."
The study, "Behaviorally assessed sleep and susceptibility to the common cold," appears online and in the September issue of the journal Sleep. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call insufficient sleep a public health epidemic, linking poor sleep with car crashes, industrial disasters and medical errors. According to a 2013 survey by the National Sleep Foundation, one in five Americans gets less than six hours of sleep on the average work night, the worst tally of the six countries surveyed.
Scientists have long known that sleep is important for our health, with poor sleep linked to chronic illnesses, disease susceptibility and even premature death. Prather’s previous studies have shown that people who sleep fewer hours are less protected against illness after receiving a vaccine. Other studies have confirmed that sleep is among the factors that regulate T-cell levels.