Study: An extra hour of sleep could bring down Covid-19 risk by 12%

Indeed, taking the proper amount of sleep is necessary to maintain the overall health of the body, whereas the lack of it can lead to many chronic ailments. Nevertheless, many people face sleep disorders nowadays. And, this has turned even more prevalent due to the stress and anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it has been more than a year now since the beginning of this pandemic, and yet we seem to be not at all closer to containing it. Vaccines have been developed and mass immunisation drives are being commenced in many countries. And, the recent wave of new coronavirus active cases has made the situation tough. In fact, India has also seen an upsurge of more than 50,000 active cases in just a day. Besides getting vaccinated, people are also resorting to an innovative way of keeping safe and trying out numerous home remedies to build their immune system.

The online journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention and Health published a new study stating that one can significantly bring down the chances of getting infected with the virus is by taking proper sleep, for the required number of hours. The study was carried out by a team of 8 researchers who surveyed from July 17, 2020, to September 25, 2020. The survey examined the participation of frontline healthcare workers from Spain, Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And, the conclusions suggested that factors like interrupted, or even less sleep, and daily burnout can in fact increase the risk of incurring the novel coronavirus.

Furthermore, it was reported that these factors also make individuals more responsive to long Covid, in which the coronavirus symptoms linger for days or even months. A night of extra one-hour sleep at night indeed decreases the odds of becoming infected with COVID-19 by 12%, as per the researchers.

Moreover, the researchers suggest that disrupted or insufficient sleep and work burnout is linked to a heightened risk of viral and bacterial infections. Besides, they are also not very clear if these are also risk factors for COVID-19.