The importance of sleep is not lost on anyone’s mind, but the results of recent studies explain more about the risks of not getting enough sleep.
A new US study has found that missing an hour of rest reduces the “innate desire of humans to help each other”.
The research also revealed that the decrease in the desire to help others may reach 78% when tired.
According to the information, nights that pass without a good sleep make a person more selfish.
The study, conducted by researchers in the United States, also found that missing just one hour of rest can kill people’s desire to help others, even close relatives and friends.
bad nights
The team noticed that a bad night seemed to freeze activity in the part of the brain responsible for encouraging social behavior.
In turn, Professor Matthew Walker, co-author of the study at the University of California, said that the results confirmed that lack of sleep acts as a catalyst for social behavior, which reduces the innate desire in humans to help each other, and the person in this case may become less social and more selfish.
The team also explained that chronic sleep deprivation can harm the social bonds and altruistic instincts that make up society.
In one experiment with 24 participants, researchers compared responses from the same person after a restful night and after 24 hours of no sleep, and the results revealed a 78% decrease in the desire to help others when tired.
antisocial behavior
The team then performed brain scans of these participants and found that a short night was associated with decreased activity in the brain’s social cognitive network, an area involved in social behavior.
The researchers reported that participants were reluctant to help friends and family like strangers, which means that lack of sleep impeded the motivation to help others regardless of whether they were asked to help strangers or close relatives, meaning that lack of sleep leads to anti-social behavior with a broad and random effect.