Grandma Knows Best

Yes, grandma was right again. She always said that a good night’s sleep would help you fight off a cold and now the researchers are proving her correct.

In this latest study, researchers used frequent telephone interviews to track the sleep habits of more than 150 men and women aged 21 to 55. After a few weeks of tracking, they exposed the subjects to the virus, quarantined them for five days and kept track of who got sick.

The individuals who averaged fewer than seven hours of sleep per night in the weeks before being exposed to the cold virus were nearly three times as likely to get sick as those who averaged eight hours or more.

The study also measured “sleep efficiency” which is the percentage of time in bed that you’re actually sleeping and found the patients with a higher score did better as well.

None of the researchers can explain with certainty why more and better sleep helps fight the cold, but it is likely related to proinflammatory cytokines, histamines, and other symptom mediators that are released in response to infection and in which sleep helps to regulate.

The bottom line is; “listen to your grandmother”. She is likely wiser than her years.