It\u2019s no surprise that getting a good night\u2019s sleep helps us avoid getting sick. Still, you might be surprised at just how much difference it makes. A new study finds that people who don\u2019t get enough rest are four times more likely to come down with colds than those who do<\/p>\n
“Short sleep was more important than any other factor in predicting subjects’ likelihood of catching [a] cold,”\u00a0Aric Prather<\/a>,\u00a0lead author of the study, said in a statement<\/a>. The findings were\u00a0published in\u00a0the journal\u00a0Sleep<\/a>\u00a0The National Sleep Foundation’s \u201cInternational Bedroom Poll<\/a>\u201d\u00a0reported in 2013 that 21% of Americans average less than six hours of sleep on week nights, and while for some people that may be sufficient, for many the consequences are disturbing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worry about the contribution<\/a>\u00a0lack of sleep is making to car accidents, industrial disasters, and medical and other occupational errors, while it has also been linked to an increased risk\u00a0of\u00a0cardiovascular disease<\/a>. Prather\u2019s research suggests we\u00a0need to consider the contribution it makes to the spread of infectious diseases. “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,\u201d Prather said<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cWith all those things taken into account, statistically sleep still carried the day.”<\/p>\n While the spread of the common cold may make a substantial contribution to human misery the more worrying aspect of what Prather has found is how applicable it may be to more deadly conditions. Prather has previously reported\u00a0that vaccines are less effective<\/a> when given to people suffering sleep deprivation. In combination the studies suggest that inadequate sleep affects the immune system more than we have recognized.<\/p>\n The study was conducted in the laboratory of co-author Dr Sheldon Cohen<\/a>\u00a0of Carnegie Mellon University, where 164 healthy volunteers were monitored.\u00a0Their\u00a0sleeping patterns\u00a0were recorded by wrist actigraphy<\/a>\u00a0for seven consecutive\u00a0days before they were quarantined and\u00a0administered nasal drops containing rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. The team then waited to see who got sick.<\/p>\n Those getting less than six hours’ sleep\u00a0in the previous week were 4.2 times more likely <\/a>to succumb than those getting more than seven.<\/p>\n The problem may be exacerbated\u00a0in the real world. People working long hours are likely to have colleagues doing the same, raising the risk that they will be exposed to infectious diseases in the first place.\u00a0Worse still a person sufficiently dedicated to their job to be losing sleep for it may well also be inclined to show up when sick, thus infecting their workmates.<\/p>\n