Tip of the Day: 9 hours a night keeps H1N1 out of sight?

Could this be the new catchphrase for fighting swine flu? As shortages of the H1N1 vaccine persist, a study finds that another prevention method bay be just as effective, although possibly just as rare.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have concluded that people who sleep less than seven hours a night are three times more likely to get sick after being exposed to a respiratory virus (ala the flu virus), compared to those who sleep eight hours or more. However, scientists at the University of Chicago and at NIH have found that adults actually need nine and a half hours of sleep a night to maintain healthy immunity.

So, could we sleep our way to better health? Quite possibly, as research also finds that mammals that sleep the longest have six times the immune cells as those that sleep less. And sleep has long been promoted to help your immune system ward off diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity and severe depression. So take off that surgical mask and go to bed!