Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Get Your Sleep To Help Fight Off Colds

I know when I get a cold, the best thing to do is sleep. I just want to sleep when I don't feel well. In THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, there was an article that said eight hours of sleep can build up your immunity and might be the best defense against getting a cold.

According to the article, in a recent study, some
scientists followed 153 men and women for two weeks, keeping track of their quality and duration of sleep. Then, during a five-day period, they quarantined the subjects and exposed them to cold viruses. Those who slept an average of fewer than seven hours a night were three times as likely to get sick as those who averaged at least eight hours.

It seems sleep and immunity are tightly linked The question is, how do I get eight hours of sleep a night? If I go to sleep at 9 p.m. and get up at 5 a.m., that would do it, provided I sleep all through the night and do not wake up with night sweats, or have to go to the bathroom or my cats coming on the bed and waking me up. Sometimes I do sleep all the way through the night, but more likely than not, some of these things happen.

I have to get up at 5 a.m. because I take Levothyroxine which should be taken the same time every day when I first get up and for work I have to get up at 5 a.m. so even on the weekends, that's the time I get up. The hard part is going to sleep at 9 p.m. I usually can get to sleep by 9:30 if I'm not wound up from losing my bet on a football game. Since I'm currently off work on short-term disability, I can do this but when I'm working, that doesn't leave me much time for my blogging. I used to try to get up at 4 a.m. to give me a couple hours of blog commenting time before I leave for work.

With the weather changing, this is the time of year when I usually catch a cold. I guess I just have to decide what I'm going to sacrifice, my sleep time and my health or my blogging time. I think my health is more important, so I'm really going to shoot for the eight hours of sleep and maybe I'll actually get at least seven or seven and a half. What about you? How much sleep do you get? Anywhere close to eight hours?

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6 comments:

DayPhoto said...

We get up at 5:30 a.m. every day of the week. Cows have to be fed, chickens water, in the summer water has to be changed. And I have to go to work. When nighttime comes I can't stay awake. The grandchildren think I like chickens because they get up early and when nighttime comes they go to sleep.

I get teased about it lots.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Daisy said...

My Mommeh usually gets up at 5:00 am, but she falls asleep by 9:00 at night!

Sandee said...

I'm with you on this one. I'm one for sleeping when I'm sick. I do try to get 8 hours of sleep each night. Now that I'm retired I can do this. I never could when I was still working. The pager or phone was always ringing.

Have a terrific day. :)

Angela said...

Great blog! Just found it through SITS. I love the layout, it's fun and full of info, but still very pleasing to the eyes and easy to read! That's a hard combination to achieve sometimes.

We're thinking about getting a dog. It's actually a friend of mine from work's. She's a Fox Terrier and my friend from work says that her family just doesn't have the time to devote to her and wants to give her to a family that will love her. We've been wanting a dog for a while, my hubs and I, but haven't the money or been able to agree on what kind of dog to get even if we did (I wanted small he wanted big). Anyway, Chica (that's the dogs name) is a year old and already potty trained and she'd be free. I'm just concerned for some reason I want to make sure we can provide her a good home. Anyway, sorry for the long comment. I just can see that your an animal lover, and before I knew it I'd written a book instead of a comment. :) Oops.

Happy blogging-
Angela from Angela's Soliloquy

The Bumbles said...

Oh I agree that sleep helps your health. I am a big fan! I get 8 hours every night. I get up at 8:30 each morning - work all day, go to the gym, come home and spend time with Andy, then am on the computer for 2-3 hours while watching TV and then off to bed between 11:30 and 12:30. I am lucky in that I work 10AM - 6PM but I don't think it matters what time you start or go to bed - we're all squeezing in the same stuff into the same window of overall time.

I shined a spotlight on you today in our Thursday 13:

http://thebumblesblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-blogging-award-winning.html

The Silver Age Sara said...

I go to bed early and get up early because that's life on a farm. I also enjoy being up before the sunrises because that's the best part of the day. I know if I worked a 9 to 5 job, I wouldn't be able to go to bed as early as I do because I'd be all wound up from work.

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