多睡觉:增加睡眠有助于预防感冒

多睡觉:增加睡眠有助于预防感冒

The viruses that cause the common cold are always lurking. But consider this: Even if we touch a doorknob or keyboard that's covered in cold germs from an infected person, we don't always catch the cold.

引起普通感冒的病毒总是潜伏着。但考虑一下这个：即使我们触摸一个门把手或键盘，上面覆盖着感染者身上的感冒病菌，我们也不会总是感冒。

"Sometimes when we're exposed to viruses, we end up not getting sick," says Aric Prather, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies how our behaviors can influence our health.

“有时当我们接触到病毒时，我们最后不会生病，”美国加州大学旧金山分校的心理学家阿里克·普拉瑟说，他研究我们的行为如何影响我们的健康。

Our immune systems often fend off the viruses that cause colds. But, how well our bodies mount this defense can vary.

我们的免疫系统常常能抵御引起感冒的病毒。但是，我们身体的防御能力是不同的。

Prather wanted to document the extent to which a good night's sleep is protective. So, he and a group of colleagues recruited 164 healthy men and women — their average age was 30 years old — to take part in a study. Using sleep diaries and a device similar to a Fitbit, the researchers assessed each participant's sleep for a week.

普拉瑟想要证明一夜好眠能在多大程度上起到保护作用。因此，他和一组同事招募了164名平均年龄为30岁的健康男性和女性来参加一项研究。研究人员使用睡眠日记和类似于Fitbit的设备，对每个参与者进行了为期一周的睡眠评估。

Then the scientists sprayed a live common cold virus into each person's nose.

然后科学家们把一种活的普通感冒病毒喷到每个人的鼻子里。

"We infected them with the cold virus," Prather says, then quarantined everybody and watched to see who got sick. The study's results appear this week in the journal Sleep.

“我们用感冒病毒感染了他们，” 普拉瑟说，然后隔离了每个人，观察谁生病了。研究结果发表在本周的《睡眠》杂志上。

"What we found was that individuals who were sleeping the least were substantially more likely to develop a cold," Prather says.

“我们发现睡眠时间最少的人患感冒的可能性更大，” 普拉瑟说。

In fact, the adults who averaged five or six hours nightly during the study were four times more likely to catch the cold than people who slept at least seven hours per night.

事实上，在研究中每晚平均睡5到6个小时的成年人患感冒的几率是每晚至少睡7个小时的人的4倍。

Analyzed another way: About 39 percent of those who slept six hours or less got sick. Of those who slept more than six hours, "only 18 percent got colds," Prather says. "It's striking."

以另一种方式分析:大约39%的睡眠不足6小时的人会生病。在那些睡眠时间超过6小时的人中，“只有18%的人感冒，” 普拉瑟说。“这是惊人的。”

Why a good night's sleep is protective isn't yet clear, but the scientists have a hunch.

为什么晚上睡个好觉能起到保护作用还不清楚，但科学家们有一种直觉。

"There's evidence that people who don't get enough sleep show higher levels of inflammation," says Sheldon Cohen, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University who's been studying the common cold for decades and co-authored the study.

卡内基梅隆大学心理学家谢尔登•科恩表示:“有证据表明，睡眠不足的人更容易患炎症。”科恩数十年来一直在研究普通感冒，并参与撰写了这项研究报告。

Other factors and behaviors may increase susceptibility too, research suggests. For instance, age may play a role, and smoking, chronic stress and a lack of exercise can all make us more susceptible.

研究表明，其他因素和行为也可能增加易感性。例如，年龄可能是一个因素，吸烟、长期压力和缺乏锻炼都可能使我们更容易受到影响。

As for sleep's value, Prather's study is one more bit of evidence that many of us aren't getting enough. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults get at least seven hours per night. And children and teens need even more.

至于睡眠的价值，普拉瑟的研究是我们许多人睡眠不足的又一个证据。美国国家睡眠基金会建议成年人每晚至少睡7个小时。儿童和青少年需要更多。