The most effective way to avoid a cold is to keep the virus off your hands and out of your nose and eyes. Cold viruses spread primarily through direct contact and airborne droplets, and they enter your body through the nasal lining and, to a lesser extent, the eyes. Every prevention strategy works by interrupting that chain somewhere.
How Cold Viruses Get In
Rhinoviruses, which cause most colds, attach to the lining of your nasal passages and spread locally from there. The back of the nasopharynx (the upper part of your throat behind your nose) is especially rich in the receptors these viruses latch onto. Your eyes are a secondary entry point. This means a cold doesn’t start from breathing in a single particle across a room. It typically starts when you touch a contaminated surface, then touch your nose or eyes.
A study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found that people touch their faces an average of 23 times per hour. Of those touches, 44% made contact with the mouth, nose, or eyes. Nearly a third hit the nose specifically. That’s a lot of opportunities for a virus sitting on your fingertips to find its way in.
Wash Your Hands the Right Way
Handwashing is the single most reliable barrier between you and a cold virus. The CDC recommends scrubbing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and the evidence supports that threshold: washing for 15 to 30 seconds removes significantly more germs than shorter washes. The friction of scrubbing matters as much as the soap itself, so get between your fingers and under your nails.
When soap and water aren’t available, a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is the next best option. Sanitizers in the 60% to 95% alcohol range are more effective at killing germs than lower-concentration or alcohol-free versions. Keep a small bottle in your bag, car, or desk for the moments between washes, especially after touching shared surfaces like door handles, elevator buttons, or shopping carts.
Be Aware of What You Touch
Cold viruses can survive on indoor surfaces for up to seven days, though they’re typically only infectious for about 24 hours. They last longest on hard, nonporous surfaces like plastic and stainless steel, and shorter on soft, porous materials like tissues and fabric. That means the phone screen someone just handed you or the breakroom coffee pot handle are higher-risk surfaces than, say, a shared throw blanket.
You don’t need to sanitize everything in sight. The practical takeaway is simpler: treat your hands as contaminated after touching shared surfaces in public spaces, and wash or sanitize before eating, rubbing your eyes, or touching your face. Since most people touch their face over 20 times an hour without realizing it, building awareness of that habit is one of the highest-impact things you can do during cold season.
Sleep at Least Seven Hours
Sleep is where prevention gets personal. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University exposed volunteers to a cold virus and tracked who got sick. People who slept six hours or less per night were 4.2 times more likely to develop a cold than those who slept more than seven hours. Those sleeping fewer than five hours were 4.5 times more likely. This wasn’t self-reported sleep data. The researchers used objective wrist monitors to measure actual sleep time.
That 4x increase in risk is enormous, larger than the effect of most supplements or lifestyle changes people try during cold season. If you’re consistently sleeping under seven hours, improving your sleep may do more to keep you healthy than anything else on this list.
Stay Physically Active
People who follow a moderately active lifestyle get sick less often than sedentary people. The sweet spot appears to be consistent, moderate exercise rather than intense training. That can look like a 20- to 30-minute walk each day, biking a few times a week, or going to the gym every other day. The key word is “sticking to” a program. Sporadic bursts of activity don’t seem to offer the same protection as a regular routine.
The exact mechanism isn’t fully understood. Exercise may help flush bacteria from the airways, improve circulation of immune cells, or reduce stress hormones that suppress immunity. Regardless of the mechanism, the pattern in the data is consistent: regular moderate movement correlates with fewer colds.
Control Your Indoor Environment
Dry indoor air, common in heated buildings during winter, helps respiratory viruses thrive. Research funded by the National Science Foundation found that maintaining indoor relative humidity between 40% and 60% is associated with lower rates of respiratory infection. Below 40%, your nasal passages dry out (reducing their ability to trap and clear viruses), and airborne droplets shrink and float longer. Above 60%, you risk mold growth, which creates its own health problems.
A simple hygrometer (available for under $15) can tell you where your home sits. If you’re consistently below 40%, a humidifier in the rooms where you spend the most time can help. This is especially relevant in colder climates where forced-air heating drops indoor humidity into the 20% to 30% range for months at a time.
What About Zinc and Supplements?
Zinc lozenges have shown promise for shortening colds once they start. Seven randomized trials found that zinc acetate and zinc gluconate lozenges delivering more than 75 mg of elemental zinc per day shortened cold duration by about 33%. That’s a meaningful reduction if you’re already sick. However, the most recent Cochrane review concluded that the evidence is still insufficient to firmly recommend zinc for either prevention or treatment, partly because study designs and lozenge formulations vary so widely.
As a prevention tool, zinc’s track record is less clear. The strongest evidence supports using zinc lozenges at the very first sign of symptoms rather than as a daily preventive measure. Vitamin C, despite its reputation, has shown only modest effects in studies: a small reduction in cold duration but no significant effect on whether you catch one in the first place. No supplement replaces the basics of hand hygiene, sleep, and avoiding face touching.
During Cold Season, Think Distance
Cold viruses spread through respiratory droplets and direct contact. When someone near you is sneezing or coughing, the simplest protection is physical distance. Avoid sharing utensils, cups, or towels with someone who’s symptomatic. If you’re the one feeling a cold come on, sneezing into your elbow rather than your hands keeps the virus off the surfaces you touch next.
The people most likely to give you a cold are those you spend the most time with: family members, coworkers, classmates. In these close-contact settings, the combination of clean hands, adequate sleep, and a humidified environment stacks the odds in your favor. No single habit is bulletproof, but together they dramatically reduce how often you get sick.