14 DAY TRIAL // A group of researchers from the Brown University Sleep Research Laboratory demonstrates in a new study that healthy teens who sleep less hours than the average, or who exhibit irregular sleeping patterns, are more likely than other healthy teens to experience viral illnesses, including the cold and the flu.
For this study, scientists led by Kathryn Orzech, PhD, investigated the frequency and duration of illnesses, as well as the school absences they provoked in teens who exhibited both normal and abnormal sleeping patterns, PsychCentral reports.
A comparative analysis of the two groups revealed a higher susceptibility to viral infections for teenagers in the group showcasing less sleep. The work also showed a positive correlation between the number of hours teens slept, on average, and the incidence of viral illness in their group.
“Our study looked at rigorously collected sleep and illness data among adolescents who were living their normal lives and going to school across a school term. We showed that there are short-term outcomes, like more acute illness among shorter-sleeping adolescents, that don’t require waiting months, years or decades to show up,” Orzech explains.