Greed and selfishness: scientists from Berkeley spoke about the important consequences of lack of sleep

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley heldSleep loss leads to the withdrawal of human helping across individuals, groups, and large-scale societies / PLOS Biology an experiment among 24 healthy people, checking their brain activity on an MRI machine both after a full eight-hour sleep and after lack of sleep. The results of observations showed that the lack of normal rest significantly reduces the activity of neural circuits responsible for social interaction and cognitive functions. This often leads to people becoming more selfish.

To continue the study, the researchers turned to a group of 200 people whose sleep quality was assessed over several days. As a result of the experiment, the participants were offered to take a test, where it was necessary to assess the readiness of a person to help others. The result was expected: the worse people had dreamthe less responsive they became.

Also, scientists turned to the statistics of donations to US charitable organizations in the period from 2011 to 2016. The analysis showed that the day after the change to winter time, the amount of assistance always decreased by 10%. Given that we are talking about the lost hour of sleep, this phenomenon has a very strong effect on sociality, the scientists noted.

The authors of the work note that the lack of adequate sleep also increases the tendency of people to isolate and increases the feeling of loneliness. According to experts, human evolutionary success depends not only on intelligence, but also on the ability to cooperate and support each other. This means that sleep, one of the components of productive and humane behavior, is extremely important for each of us.