Sleep well to avoid a cold

The research team, from Carnegie Mellon University, showed that people who slept for seven hours or less a night trebled their risk of catching a cold compared to people who slept for at least eight hours. They think that lack of sleep impairs the immune system and so the body's ability to fight the cold virus.

The research was carried out on 153 healthy men and women of an average age of 37. They were interviewed about their sleeping habits over two weeks. They were then isolated and given nose drops that contained the cold virus. Volunteers reported any cold-like symptoms over the next five days, After 28 days their blood was examined for antibodies to the cold virus. Those who slept the least were the most likely to have contracted a cold.

Quality of sleep was also important. Volunteers who slept in their beds only 92% of the time were more than five times as likely to develop a cold as people who slept in their beds 98% of the time.

Other research has suggested that people who sleep for less than seven to eight hours a night are more at risk of heart disease.