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Lack of Sleep Puts You At Higher Risk For Colds, First Experimental Study Finds
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.
Knowing it in principle and knowing when to put that knowledge to work are two different things.
I used to catch *everything* that was going around, including some things most other people didn't. I got sick three, maybe four times a year. I always put it down to having a lousy immune system, until in one checkup I mentioned to my doctor that I'm a pretty loud snorer. "Better have you checked for sleep apnea," he said, and sure enough I had it, although only a relatively mild case. He prescribed sleeping on a CPAP machine, and since I've been doing that I almost never get sick. Maybe once in four years.
Anecdotal evidence, I know, but my point is this. Now that there's research demonstrating the impact of sleep on immune system performance it makes sense to make questions about sleep quantity and quality a routine part of health surveillance. I just happened to mention snoring to my doctor on one visit; if I'd been asked twenty years earlier it would have saved my employers a lot of sick time and me a lot of misery.
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Jesus, we wouldn't get anywhere if the world were full of people like you.
Um...
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Interested people might want to go read up on melatonin: 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.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Turns out going outside when it's cold and wet pretty much never makes a difference in the normal course of things. Hypothermia is the exception, and for the most part that means going outside cold, wet, and without much clothing for prolonged periods of time to the extent you're likely chattering the daylights out of your teeth.
This is an important finding since current parenting styles (at least in temperate areas of the US) often include keeping the kids inside much of the winter to prevent them from getting sick. The consequent lack of exercise and being in close quarters with disease vectors (other kids) yields the result of sick, fat kids. I tell my patients to send little Cindy and Juan outside with a good coat when it's cold and wet, unless the little buggers are going to slip on the ice or are shedding genuine tears of misery in a prolonged fashion, which I personally think is good advice for grown up nerds as well, present company included.
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.