In my long self-experimentation paper I described how I stopped getting colds when my sleep improved due to more standing and morning light. It was easy to notice: Everyone around me was getting sick and I wasn’t. In Beijing this winter the same thing happened: Lots of people around me got colds — a friend of mine was even hospitalized — but I didn’t. This winter I continued to get lots of morning light — I cared enormously that my apartment was on the sunny side of the building — but in place of standing for 8 hours or more every day I stood on one leg four times (left leg twice, right leg twice) until exhaustion.
Plenty of other evidence links better sleep with better immune function. The latest comes from the Archives of Internal Medicine. In a study halfway between a survey and an experiment, researchers measured the sleep of subjects with a questionnaire for two weeks and then brought them to an isolation unit, exposed them to a cold virus, and waited to see if they developed a cold. Subjects who slept better were less likely to get a cold. It was a big effect: “Participants with less than 7 hours of sleep [per night] were 2.9 times more likely to develop a cold than those with 8 hours or more of sleep [per night].” I rarely sleep 7 hours but wake up feeling plenty rested, which suggests that my sleep is deeper than average. Overall, I’m happy for the support of my findings. Better sleep has a three-fold benefit: you feel more rested (short term), you get colds less often (medium term), and your risk of heart disease goes down (long term). The morning sunlight I get corresponds to sitting outside in the shade for about two hours; the standing takes a total of about 40 minutes/day (with your leg bent most of the time). I usually watch a movie or TV at the same time and always look forward to it. Thanks to David Cramer.
In my long self-experimentation paper I described how I stopped getting colds when my sleep improved due to more standing and morning light. It was easy to notice: Everyone around me was getting sick and I wasn’t. In Beijing this winter the same thing happened: Lots of people around me got colds — a friend of mine was even hospitalized — but I didn’t. This winter I continued to get lots of morning light — I cared enormously that my apartment was on the sunny side of the building — but in place of standing for 8 hours or more every day I stood on one leg four times (left leg twice, right leg twice) until exhaustion.
Plenty of other evidence links better sleep with better immune function. The latest comes from the Archives of Internal Medicine. In a study halfway between a survey and an experiment, researchers measured the sleep of subjects with a questionnaire for two weeks and then brought them to an isolation unit, exposed them to a cold virus, and waited to see if they developed a cold. Subjects who slept better were less likely to get a cold. It was a big effect: “Participants with less than 7 hours of sleep [per night] were 2.9 times more likely to develop a cold than those with 8 hours or more of sleep [per night].” I rarely sleep 7 hours but wake up feeling plenty rested, which suggests that my sleep is deeper than average.
Overall, I’m happy for the support of my findings. Better sleep has a three-fold benefit: you feel more rested (short term), you get colds less often (medium term), and your risk of heart disease goes down (long term). The morning sunlight I get corresponds to sitting outside in the shade for about two hours; the standing takes a total of about 40 minutes/day (with your leg bent most of the time). I usually watch a movie or TV at the same time and always look forward to it.
Thanks to David Cramer.