Short sleepers more likely to catch cold

People who sleep six hours a night or less are more likely to catch cold, says a study.The findings published in the US journal Sleep, added to growing evidence of the importance of sleep for health, reported Xinhua news agency.

"It goes beyond feeling groggy or irritable," lead author Aric Prather, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said. "Not getting enough sleep affects your physical health."

For the study, 164 adults underwent two months of health screenings and interviews to establish baselines for factors like stress, temperament, and alcohol and cigarette use. The researchers tracked their sleep patterns for seven days using a watch-like sensor that measured the duration and quality of sleep throughout the night.

Then, the participants were sequestered in a hotel, administered the cold virus via nasal drops and monitored for a week, collecting daily mucus samples to see if the virus had taken hold.