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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults experience an average of two to three colds each year.
At the same time, sleep remains a challenge for millions of Americans.
National Center for Health Statistics data from 2024 show that 30.5% of U.S. adults reported sleeping fewer than seven hours in an average 24-hour period.
Among adults ages 50–64, that number rose to 34.5%.
Those statistics become even more interesting when we look at research examining sleep and susceptibility to respiratory infection.
In a controlled study, Cohen and colleagues tracked participants’ sleep before exposing them to rhinovirus. Those averaging fewer than seven hours of sleep were nearly three times as likely to develop a clinical cold as those averaging eight hours or more.
A later controlled study by Prather and colleagues used wrist-based sleep measurement before viral exposure. Participants averaging fewer than six hours of sleep were about 4.2 times as likely to develop a cold as those sleeping more than seven hours.
These studies used different methods and sleep-duration comparisons, so their results should not be treated as interchangeable.
And neither study means that adequate sleep guarantees immunity—or that becoming sick means someone failed to take care of herself.
Infection risk is influenced by many factors.
What this research does reinforce is something worth paying attention to:
Recovery Deserves a Place in the Wellness Conversation
We often think about wellness in terms of what we should add.
A supplement.
A new food.
Another workout.
Another strategy.
But Energy Stewardship™ invites a different starting point:
What is my body communicating—and am I paying attention?
Sleep, recovery, hydration, nourishment, stress, environment, and the demands we’re carrying do not exist in separate boxes.
And fall gives us a natural opportunity to notice what may have changed before the season becomes even busier.
What is my body communicating—and am I paying attention?
Your Fall Energy Stewardship™ Inventory
Before you add another wellness strategy, take a moment to check in with yourself:
- How restorative does my sleep actually feel?
- Has my hydration changed as the weather has cooled?
- What happens to my energy during the afternoon?
- Where am I repeatedly overriding fatigue or stress because something “has to get done”?
- What routines genuinely help me recover?
- What am I already anticipating—or dreading—about the upcoming holiday season?
- Where might I need a different boundary, routine, resource, or form of support?
You don’t have to respond by overhauling your life.
Notice first.
Learn.
Discern what applies to you.
Then choose one meaningful next step.
That is stewardship.
Your body doesn’t need perfection from you. It needs your attention.
Research & Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Common Cold.
- National Center for Health Statistics. Short Sleep Duration and Sleep Difficulties Among Adults: United States, 2024. Data Brief No. 559.
- Cohen S, Doyle WJ, Alper CM, Janicki-Deverts D, Turner RB. Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009.
- Prather AA, Janicki-Deverts D, Hall MH, Cohen S. Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold. Sleep. 2015.
Educational note: This content is provided for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease or replace individualized medical care.