We’ve already battled the common cold a few times this season, so we’re thrilled that preventing infection can be as easy as getting a good night’s sleep. A recent Carnegie Mellon University study found that people who get less than seven hours of sleep per night are three times more likely to develop colds once exposed to the virus, and participants who felt completely rested were 5½ times less likely to get a cold than those who didn’t get a quality night’s rest.

However, according to a recent survey conducted by Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., and SleepBetter.org, three-fourths of Americans feel they’re not getting enough sleep and only 32 percent rate their sleep quality as good or excellent. Following are a few tips for getting some rest — and hopefully warding off those colds — from Breus, author of Beauty Sleep (Blume, 2007) and Good Night (Dutton Adult, 2006). (If you do get a cold, check out “4 Ways to Survive a Cold” in our Exclusive Content section.)

• Worries and stress were the biggest causes of sleeplessness — 47 percent of survey participants said economic concerns kept them up at night. Breus says that he gives patients simple exercises, such as counting backwards from 300 in threes without thinking of anything else. “It is so boring that people often drift off to sleep,” he says.
• “For people with more of physiological response to stress, I often recommend progressive muscle relaxation,” Breus says. “This is a technique where people tense and then relax their muscles, one body part at a time, from their face to their feet.” Sign up for Breus’ newsletter for a free MP3 download of a PMR session. (This exercise reminds us of the savasana pose at the end of yoga classes.)
• “One of the most underrated and critical aspects of sleep is your bedtime consistency,” Breus says. While your wake-up time often is regulated, people often go to bed at the point of exhaustion or after a “second wind,” so pick a consistent bedtime.

Do you have any advice for getting a good night’s rest? What works for you?

Photo credit: JHorrocks/IStock Photo

Tags: author, Biology, Common cold, Michael J. Breus, Sleep