Holiday Travel and Respiratory Season: Sleep, Colds, and Sleeping Away From Your Own Pillow

Last updated: October 2026

Sleep matters during holiday travel and respiratory season because adults who slept less were more likely to develop a cold after controlled exposure to a cold virus: under 5 hours a night carried 4.50 times the odds of a cold compared with more than 7 hours (Prather et al., 2015). Travel often means late arrivals, early departures and a bed that is not your own. The second half of this article covers the part of that unfamiliar bed a provider can measure, which is the pillow under your neck.

Key takeaways

In 164 adults given a cold virus under quarantine, sleeping under 5 hours carried 4.50 times the odds of a cold compared with more than 7 hours (Prather et al., 2015).
In 153 adults, sleeping under 7 hours before a viral challenge made a clinical cold 2.94 times more likely (Cohen et al., 2009).
A Pillowise fitting combines three measurements (shoulder width, neck circumference, neck length) with sleeping position and bed type to identify the best-fitting pillow from seven sizes.

Does sleep change your chance of catching a cold?

Two quarantine studies answer this directly. In the first, 164 adults wore wrist sensors for 7 days to measure their sleep, then received rhinovirus nasal drops under controlled conditions (Prather et al., 2015).

Compared with sleeping more than 7 hours, sleeping under 5 hours gave an odds ratio of 4.50 for developing a cold, and 5 to 6 hours gave 4.24. The result held after accounting for pre-existing antibodies, demographics, season, body mass index and health practices (Prather et al., 2015).

In the second study, 153 adults reported their sleep over 14 days before the same type of viral challenge. Those sleeping under 7 hours were 2.94 times more likely to develop a clinical cold, and those with sleep efficiency under 92 percent were 5.50 times more likely (Cohen et al., 2009).

Why is sleep linked to how the body handles infection?

Reviews describe sleep and the immune system as closely linked in both directions. Besedovsky, Lange and Haack summarize this as sleep-immune crosstalk, covering both health and disease (Besedovsky et al., 2019).

A second review describes sleep and inflammatory signaling as reciprocal, with disturbed sleep contributing to dysregulated inflammatory and antiviral responses (Irwin, 2019). These are reviews, and the controlled evidence for the cold itself comes from the two quarantine studies above.

What changes when you sleep on someone else's pillow?

A hotel or guest-room pillow is one height for every guest. No single optimal pillow height can be specified, because the right height depends on cervical alignment, body dimension, contact pressure, and muscle activity (Lei et al., 2021).

Pillow height changes the neck in measurable ways. In 16 adults aged 20 to 30, pillows of 0, 10 and 20 cm changed T1 slope and the C2-7 Cobb angle on radiographs (Kim et al., 2015).

Muscle activity changes too. In a pilot EMG study of 15 adults lying on their side, a height matched to shoulder width produced the lowest sternocleidomastoid and trapezius activity and the highest comfort rating (Jiao et al., 2025).

Why do generic pillows miss?

A standard contoured pillow, not fitted to the individual, performed no better than ordinary shapes in a randomized study of 106 side sleepers (Gordon et al., 2009). No single optimal pillow height can be specified, because it depends on four variables that differ from person to person: cervical alignment, body dimension, contact pressure, and muscle activity (Lei et al., 2021).

What does a Pillowise fitting measure?

Pillowise is a fitted cervical pillow that licensed healthcare providers measure and dispense, made in seven sizes. Our sleep specialists take three measurements: shoulder width, neck circumference, and neck length. Combined with sleeping position and bed type, an algorithm identifies the best-fitting pillow from seven sizes.

Shoulder width is the measurement the EMG study found mattered most. A height matched to it produced the lowest neck and shoulder muscle activity during side sleeping (Jiao et al., 2025), and body dimension is what drives the individual optimum (Tian et al., 2025).

Pillowise also comes in a Travel size, measured the same way as the Standard and Queen, in a smaller format to take with you on nights away from home.

What does the research not show yet?

A pillow does nothing to a virus, and no study has tested whether any pillow changes infection rates; the cold studies measured sleep duration and efficiency. The pillow studies are small and were run in adults without neck pain, 15 in the EMG pilot and 16 in the radiographic study, and reviews of clinical outcomes are mixed: the most recent screened 29,091 records, included five studies covering 239 patients, and found no clear advantage for any pillow type in chronic neck pain (Ghosh et al., 2025). A fitted pillow is comfort and neck support for the night, used alongside the care a provider is already giving.

How can providers talk about travel and sleep?

Ask patients about holiday plans: how many nights away, what time zones, and how their neck feels after a night on an unfamiliar pillow. Ask how many hours they usually sleep at home.

Tell patients what the cold studies measured. Short sleep before viral exposure went with higher odds of a cold (Prather et al., 2015; Cohen et al., 2009), so protecting sleep hours on the road is a practical goal, and a familiar, measured pillow is one comfort they can bring.

A fitted pillow extends the work of the visit into the hours between visits, alongside the exercise, manual therapy, and other care you are already delivering.

Common questions

Does short sleep make a cold more likely?

In 164 adults given a cold virus under quarantine, sleeping under 5 hours carried 4.50 times the odds of a cold compared with more than 7 hours (Prather et al., 2015). In a separate study of 153 adults, sleeping under 7 hours made a clinical cold 2.94 times more likely (Cohen et al., 2009).

Can a pillow help you avoid a cold?

No study has tested that, and a pillow does nothing to a virus. What a measured pillow changes is neck position and neck muscle activity in bed (Kim et al., 2015; Jiao et al., 2025). Its role during travel is comfort on the nights that count.

Should you bring your own pillow when you travel?

A hotel pillow is one height for everyone, and no single optimal height suits every sleeper (Lei et al., 2021). The Pillowise Travel size is measured the same way as the Standard and Queen, so people can take their fitted support away from home.

Is a contoured pillow from a store enough?

Not reliably. A standard contoured pillow, not fitted to the individual, performed no better than ordinary shapes in a randomized study of 106 side sleepers (Gordon et al., 2009), and no single optimal height can be specified because it depends on four variables that differ from person to person (Lei et al., 2021). A contour helps only if its height matches the person using it. That is what the fitting settles, in a provider's office.

Find a Pillowise provider or become one

Pillowise pillows are clinically measured and dispensed exclusively through licensed healthcare providers as part of broader sleep, posture, and recovery education.

To locate a Pillowise provider near you, visit: Find a Reseller

Licensed healthcare providers interested in offering Pillowise may register here: Become a Reseller

References

Besedovsky, L., Lange, T., & Haack, M. (2019). The sleep-immune crosstalk in health and disease. Physiological Reviews, 99(3), 1325-1380. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00010.2018

Cohen, S., Doyle, W. J., Alper, C. M., Janicki-Deverts, D., & Turner, R. B. (2009). Sleep habits and susceptibility to the common cold. Archives of Internal Medicine, 169(1), 62-67. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2008.505

Ghosh, S. K., Goyal, M., & Goyal, K. S. (2025). Effect of pillow on pain, disability and sleep quality in patients with chronic neck pain: A systematic review. Rehabilitación, 59(3), 100922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rh.2025.100922

Gordon, S. J., Grimmer-Somers, K., & Trott, P. (2009). Pillow use: The behaviour of cervical pain, sleep quality and pillow comfort in side sleepers. Manual Therapy, 14(6), 671-678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.math.2009.02.006

Irwin, M. R. (2019). Sleep and inflammation: Partners in sickness and in health. Nature Reviews Immunology, 19(11), 702-715. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-019-0190-z

Jiao, R., Xiao, W., Wang, M., Yu, S., & Li, H. (2025). The impact of pillow height on neck muscle activity: A pilot study. Sleep and Breathing, 29(1), 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-024-03219-6

Kim, H. C., Jun, H. S., Kim, J. H., Ahn, J. H., Chang, I. B., Song, J. H., & Oh, J. K. (2015). The effect of different pillow heights on the parameters of cervicothoracic spine segments. Korean Journal of Spine, 12(3), 135-138. https://doi.org/10.14245/kjs.2015.12.3.135

Lei, J.-X., Yang, P.-F., Yang, A.-L., Gong, Y.-F., Shang, P., & Yuan, X.-C. (2021). Ergonomic consideration in pillow height determinants and evaluation. Healthcare, 9(10), 1333. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9101333

Prather, A. A., Janicki-Deverts, D., Hall, M. H., & Cohen, S. (2015). Behaviorally assessed sleep and susceptibility to the common cold. Sleep, 38(9), 1353-1359. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4968

Tian, S., Yao, C., Wang, Y., Cao, X., Sun, Y., Wang, L., & Fan, Y. (2025). The individualized optimal pillow height and neck support design for side sleepers. Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, 63(2), 535-544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-024-03204-x