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Medicine

Lack of Sleep Puts You At Higher Risk For Colds, First Experimental Study Finds 86

Posted by Soulskill from the confirming-things-we-know dept.
sciencehabit writes: Moms and sleep researchers alike have stressed the importance of solid shuteye for years, especially when it comes to fighting off the common cold. Their stance is a sensible one—skimping on sleep weakens the body's natural defense system, leaving it more vulnerable to viruses. But the connection relied largely on self-reported, subjective surveys—until now (abstract). For the first time, a team of scientists reports that they have locked down the link experimentally, showing that sleep-deprived individuals are more than four times more likely to catch a cold than those who are well-rested.
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Lack of Sleep Puts You At Higher Risk For Colds, First Experimental Study Finds More

Lack of Sleep Puts You At Higher Risk For Colds, First Experimental Study Finds

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  • Count me in (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Count me in as a data point. Every time I undersleep I get the sniffles. if I undersleep and am exposed to cold weather, it's game over. Every time I oversleep after getting those sniffles I get better, if not outright lose them. I also notice that other healing processes in my body work a lot better after getting good sleep. Headaches, ear aches, all sorts of minor maladies that I've had over the years (I'm 28).

    This is also one more reason to hate public schools. The early morning starts are doing the chil

    • I'm not very prone to colds, but it's my experience that when I'm sleep-deprived, I feel much more sensitive to cold weather. It's interesting to see it wasn't just an impression of mine, and if I stop being lazy I may read the full article, to see if they have found what mechanisms are at play.
      • Or, at the very least, if they have interesting suppositions, that they may eventually turn into hypotheses or theories.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I think the ultimate conclusion is that sleep is when the body performs full repair and maintenance, not just neuronal management confined to the braincase. Perhaps the metabolic changes that occur during sleep accelerate repair mechanisms in the rest of our organs as well. IANABiologist.

    • The early morning starts are doing the children a huge disservice...

      Don't blame that entirely on the school system. Parents who let their children stay up late and don't make sure that they get enough sleep (Children need more sleep than adults do.) are just as much at fault, if not more so.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Parents who let their children stay up late and don't make sure that they get enough sleep (Children need more sleep than adults do.) are just as much at fault, if not more so.

        Absolutely agree that children need more sleep than adults. However, they are not necessarily able to fall asleep at the needed time to be ready for school. My parents sure as hell tried to get me to go to bed early, but I all I did after getting to bed is toss and turn for hours. I think a lot more children and adolescents are afflicted with delayed sleep phase disorder [wikipedia.org] than we think.

        • Parents who let their children stay up late and don't make sure that they get enough sleep (Children need more sleep than adults do.) are just as much at fault, if not more so.

          Absolutely agree that children need more sleep than adults. However, they are not necessarily able to fall asleep at the needed time to be ready for school. My parents sure as hell tried to get me to go to bed early, but I all I did after getting to bed is toss and turn for hours. I think a lot more children and adolescents are afflicted with delayed sleep phase disorder [wikipedia.org] than we think.

          Maybe, but it helps if you don't let them have TVs, iPads or mobile phones in their rooms when they go to bed...

    • If schools have early morning starts, you just need to make your kids go to bed early. It's not rocket surgery.

      As an adult, I have just had to learn that if I need to be up at 6 to go to work, I can't stay up until 3 and expect to feel anything but knackered all day.

  • Most of the colds I've encountered have made it significantly more difficult to sleep. That's actually why I'm home today - taking a rare sick day for an otherwise symtomless cold that just left me 'static-y' without letting me really sleep. No nagging mental troubles, no troubles previous nights, no cough, no caffeine or diet issues I could tell - just a steady heartbeat/mental state that wouldn't actually trigger a proper dream state all night. Had earplugs, sleeping mask, and a nice zen state to dismi

    • >>Definitely seemed a physical thing rather than a physical one.

      Meant phyical rather than a mental one. I must reiterate - I am rather sleepy today - still can't get a nap going, and am now in that stage of the day where it's better to wait for night at this point. Thus, slashdot.

      Ryan Fenton

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Get some exercise. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet.

      • Get some exercise. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet.

        That's some facepalmy advice for a person with cold, especially if they have fever.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dkman ( 863999 )
          But it's good advice for a healthy person.

          If you sat in your office chair all day, then went home and binge watched Game of Thrones and tried to go to sleep you may not get good rest. But if you put of that last episode to go for a 30 minute jog, took a shower, then went to bed your body is much happier to get a good night's rest.

          We're not meant to be sedentary creatures. That's what he was trying to say.

          A sick person is supposed to get plenty of rest, however.

  • Melatonin (Score:4, Interesting)

    by codeButcher ( 223668 ) on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @03:22PM (#50439255)

    Interested people might want to go read up on melatonin [wikipedia.org]: how it is produced most effectively, and what its effects are on health. Obviously, it is an area that still requires a lot of study to be conclusive, but I suspect that this hormone plays a large part in the effect demonstrated in this study.

  • yup.

  • Up Next! Too much food can make you fat! Stay tuned.

    Fighting the frizzies at 11.

    • Perhaps I could get funding for a study to prove that imbibing liquids directly correlates to excretion of liquids...

    • Re:Up Next! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dorianny ( 1847922 ) on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @04:51PM (#50439813) Journal

      Up Next! Too much food can make you fat! Stay tuned.

      Fighting the frizzies at 11.

      Some of the most profound discoveries have come from experiments verifying established knowledge, yielding unexpected results. Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus resulted from just such an experiment.

      • Some of the most profound discoveries have come from experiments verifying established knowledge, yielding unexpected results. Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus resulted from just such an experiment.

        Wow, he was experimenting with colds and sleep and he accidentally the atomic bomb?

  • Here is an article [webmd.com] from 2010.

  • But our mothers, wives, girlfriends, employers, etc etc etc just won't listen! We need our beauty sleep. Up at the crack of noon.

  • As if... (Score:3)

    by OhSoLaMeow ( 2536022 ) on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @04:07PM (#50439559)
    As if women needed another excuse to refuse sex.


    Oh, wait...

  • For some people. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I love generalizations like this study. I'm a very short term sleeper. 2-4hrs/night average. Been like this my entire life (over 30yrs now). Last time I had a cold that put me in bed I was in high school. I cannot recall the last time I had one that kept me from a day of work. Last time I had the flu... I think I was 17. It's been so long it's difficult to recall now.

    No doubt everything is on a bit of a curve. To say "everyone" is far to generalized.

  • Early to bed... (Score:3)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @05:23PM (#50440043) Journal

    Lack of sleep puts you at risk for just about everything in the way of illness.

    Go to bed, people. Don't look at any screens for at least a half-hour before you hit the pillow and it will help you fall asleep.

    Sleep is wonderful. Get 8-9 hours if you can. The longer you sleep the more you'll dream and dreams (even nightmares) are crucial for good mental and physical health. In fact, some of the best days I've ever had seemed to come after a night with one of those nightmares where you wake up shouting, jumping off the bed and grasping the covers.

    Artificial lighting has screwed us up a bit. If I could, I'd go to bed a few hours after dark and wake up at dawn every day. I do it during the summer, but where I live it gets dark pretty early in the winter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Lack of sleep puts you at risk for just about everything in the way of illness.

      Might be related, but when I get sick I tend to sleep a lot. The last bout of Man Flu I got I only emerged from bed to seek food and sometimes medication.

      But for me, the number 1 reason that I get sick is the fact I work in the middle of an open plan office (AKA an incubator). I get subject to every airborne illness that any other worker carries in, I swear they're actually fighting in a battle royale to determine which one

      • The last bout of Man Flu I got I only emerged from bed to seek food and sometimes medication.

        If you can still eat, it's not real Man Flu, it's just a cold.

        Also, didn't you have to go to the bathroom?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Also, didn't you have to go to the bathroom?

          Not as much as you'd think.

          Also, buckets are handy.

  • I though it said "sheep".

  • Con Crud (Score:3)

    by techno-vampire ( 666512 ) on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @08:56PM (#50441097) Homepage
    Everybody who goes to conventions, especially conventions for hobbies, SF, fantasy, mystery, gaming or media interests knows what con crud is. It's a type of cold or flu-like disorder that many people come down with either at those conventions or just after. Not everybody gets it, of course, and few people get it every time, but as long as there are a few people there who are in the contagious stage, it's going to be passed around. I've been lucky, so far, because in several decades of attending SF and media cons I've never come down with it. I also try to make sure that I get adequate sleep while I'm enjoying the con and that just might be why I've been immune to it. Remember, if you want to come home healthy, don't insist on partying all night, every night and be sure to eat at least one healthy meal every day.

  • more for the pre existing conditions list and you boss can hold it over you with the GOP wins

    Well bob you can keep working the OT or we can get rid you and you will have a very hard time being able to pay for a doctor ever again.

  • This would be news to Cohen, S., Doyle, W. J., Alper, C. M., Janicki-Deverts, D., & Turner, R. B. (2009). Sleep habits and susceptibility to the common cold. Archives of Internal Medicine, 169(1), 62–67. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2008.505 "Background: Sleep quality is thought to be an impor- tant predictor of immunity and, in turn, susceptibility to the common cold. This article examines whether sleep duration and efficiency in the weeks preceding viral ex- posure are associated with cold suscep

    • For 14 consecutive days, they reported their sleep dura- tion and sleep efficiency (percentage of time in bed ac- tually asleep) for the previous night and whether they felt rested.

      It isn't said to be the first study. Only the first one that didn't rely on self reporting of amount of sleep. They used monitors to measure their sleep before the administration of the cold virus, then they were kept in the lab and their sleep was again measured. Self reporting is pretty notorious for being incorrect.

      • You are right, it isn't said to be the first study. It *is* said to be the "first experimental study". Which it is not.

  • Does lack of sleep affect that too? I noticed my body is more sensitive from them. :(

  • YMMV, but I went from 3-4 bad colds a year, to maybe one mild one every other year, when I started supplementing with vitamins C (1000mg/day), D (4800IU/day), magnesium, and zinc. I've been horribly insomniac all my life, but I still never get colds, even though I'm around children all the time, a lot of them get sick, blow their nose or puke on me, etc., and I almost *never* get their colds or GI bugs. Our own kids also stopped getting them when we started supplementing, and they're around sick kids even

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