title: Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Short sleep duration and poor sleep continuity have been implicated in the susceptibility to infectious illness. However, prior research has relied on subjective measures of sleep, which are subject to recall bias. The aim of this study was to determine whether sleep, measured behaviorally using wrist actigraphy, predicted cold incidence following experimental viral exposure.
  A total of 164 healthy men and women (age range, 18 to 55 y) volunteered for this study. Wrist actigraphy and sleep diaries assessed sleep duration and sleep continuity over 7 consecutive days. Participants were then quarantined and administered nasal drops containing the rhinovirus, and monitored over 5 days for the development of a clinical cold (defined by infection in the presence of objective signs of illness). Logistic regression analysis revealed that actigraphy- assessed shorter sleep duration was associated with an increased likelihood of development of a clinical cold. Specifically, those sleeping < 5 h (odds ratio [OR] = 4.50, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-18.69) or sleeping between 5 to 6 h (OR = 4.24, 95% CI, 1.08-16.71) were at greater risk of developing the cold compared to those sleeping > 7 h per night; those sleeping 6.01 to 7 h were at no greater risk (OR = 1.66; 95% CI 0.40-6.95). This association was independent of prechallenge antibody levels, demographics, season of the year, body mass index, psychological variables, and health practices. Sleep fragmentation was unrelated to cold susceptibility. Other sleep variables obtained using diary and actigraphy were not strong predictors of cold susceptibility.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Shorter sleep duration, measured behaviorally using actigraphy prior to viral exposure, was associated with increased susceptibility to the common cold.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Aric A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Prather
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Janicki-Deverts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Martica H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Sheldon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003139:Common Cold / Q000276:immunology / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012229:Rhinovirus; D057566:Self Report; D012890:Sleep / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors; D014953:Wrist; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: common cold; immunity; rhinovirus; sleep continuity; sleep duration