To stay consistent with your workouts it is important for you to stay healthy! An increasing number of studies demonstrate that low sleep quality and short
sleep duration are associated with an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases (1-3).
In a recent study, the researchers monitored the participants sleep during 7 days with both a sleep diary and a device that records the actual sleep pattern. The study included over 150 persons
between the age of 18-55. After the sleep- pattern gathering they had nasal drops with a common cold virus and was then put in quarantine.
After eliminating factors like prior sickness, sex, age, social status, BMI, smoking and so on the researchers found that those who had shorter sleep duration had a higher risk of developing the common cold (1). The findings are in line with other studies that have had a similar approach but only used sleep diaries for sleep quantification (2). An observational study of over 56000 women found that both reduced and prolonged (9hours +) habitual sleep durations was associated with an increased risk of pneumonia (3).
Article written by Jonas Liefke.
Sources:
1. Prather Aric A. Behaviorally assessed sleep and susceptibility to the common cold. Sleep. 2015 Sep 1;38(9):1353-9
2. Cohen, Sheldon. Sleep habits and cusceptibility to the common cold. Arch Intern Med. 2009 January 12; 169(1): 62–67
3. Patel. Sanjay R. A prospective study of sleep duration and pneumonia risk in women. Sleep
2012;35(1):97-101.
