Study: Lack of sleep makes us less likely to help others

Not getting enough sleep can make you more selfish, which affects how likely you are to help another person.

Sleep is one of the most important processes in life and so important to our physical and mental health, it is well known. Now a new study published in Plus Biology Lack of sleep leads to a decrease in people’s desire to help others.

In the study summary, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley write that it is an essential characteristic of humans to help each other, and that it has been one of the most powerful forces that have enabled the emergence of modern civilizations.

conducted three studies

With three studies, researchers looked at the selfish effect of sleep deprivation and analyzed changes in neural activity and behavior. The researchers were able to show that lack of sleep is a previously unknown factor that determines whether people choose to help each other, they observed the phenomenon between individuals and across societies.

At the individual level, the researchers write, lack of sleep at night leads to a withdrawal of help from one individual to another. Minimize sleep deprivation for several nights with the option of helping others during daily interactions.

The transition to daylight saving time affects

The researchers also found that even an hour of missed sleep, such as that caused by daylight saving time, reduces actual selfless help. They looked at a database of charitable giving in the United States and found that between 2001 and 2016, donations fell 10 percent after daylight saving time, a drop not found in states that don’t change time.

Researchers believe that insufficient sleep is therefore a significant and influential force that determines whether people choose to help each other and that this is prevalent even after a lack of sleep.

Surprised by the results

researcher Etty Ben Simon And the Matthew WalkerThe study, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley and director of the university’s Center for Human Sleep Science, led the study, and said CNN The results are so amazing.

“Even a one-hour lack of sleep was more than enough to influence someone else’s choice of help,” Ben Simon told CNN. “When people lose an hour of sleep, it is a clear blow to our innate human kindness and motivation to help others in need,” he continues.

“Sleep has been shown to consistently affect our mood and cognitive functions, and thus potentially also influence how we relate to others.” Ivana Rosenzweig, a sleep physician and consultant neuropsychiatrist at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital in the UK, according to CNN. She did not participate in the study.

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