Resting to Prevent the Common Cold

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to talk to you about resting as a way of preventing a cold. Now, resting is one of the best ways of preventing and treating a cold, should you catch one. Sleep helps you prevent a cold in a variety of ways. First of all, it boosts your immune system, secondly it recharges your body which means you're going to perform at peak capacity. Sleep also reduces stress which can be a major cause of a cold. So getting enough sleep is very important, but actually doing it can be very difficult. Any busy person knows that you can't always get as many hours of sleep as you want, but one thing that you can do is try to put yourself on a set sleep schedule. Force yourself to be in bed by a certain time no matter what, maybe it's midnight, maybe it's 11 pm, but make sure that you at least get 8 hours of sleep per night. If it turns out that you missed sleep because you're on a mixed up schedule, then what you should do is try to take a nap in the afternoon. Don't nap for too long because then it'll actually drain you, don't nap for anymore than an hour, set your alarm and just lye down, try to relax and even a short nap will do wonders for you. If you have a disjointed schedule, let's say you're a musician like me and you're traveling around a lot, then it's difficult to get enough sleep. You really have to force yourself to sit down and not do something, don't go out even though you may be tempted to do it, call it a night and relax. Because if you don't, you're going to wake up around 8 thinking oh god, I wish I could sleep till noon and you don't always have that luxury. People who don't get enough sleep are at much higher risk of catching a cold because it makes them very stressed out and their body is as strong anymore. So get enough sleep as you possibly can, work it into your schedule, even at the point of cutting out social things and you'll find you will be getting sick much less often."