Humans help one another; it is one of the pillars of civilised society. However, a new study conducted by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals that a lack of sleep impairs this fundamental human trait, with real-world consequences. Sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and overall mortality. These new findings, however, show that a lack of sleep also impairs our basic social conscience, causing us to withdraw our desire and willingness to help others.

In one section of the new study, the researchers found that charitable giving dropped by 10% in the week following the start of Daylight Saving Time, when residents in most states “spring forward” and lose one hour of their day—a drop not seen in states that do not change their clocks or when states return to standard time in the fall.

The study, led by UC Berkeley research scientist Eti Ben Simon and Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology, adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that insufficient sleep not only harms an individual’s mental and physical well-being but also jeopardises interpersonal bonds and even the altruistic sentiment of an entire nation. “We have discovered a very intimate link between our sleep health and our mental health over the last 20 years.” “We haven’t found a single major psychiatric condition in which sleep is normal,” Walker said. “However, this new research shows that a lack of sleep not only harms an individual’s health, but also degrades social interactions between individuals and, ultimately, the fabric of human society itself.” How we function as a social species—and we are a social species—appears to be profoundly dependent on how much sleep we get.”

“We’re seeing more and more studies, including this one, where the effects of sleep deprivation don’t just stop at the individual, but spread to those around us,” Ben Simon said. “Not getting enough sleep not only harms your own well-being, but it also harms the well-being of your entire social circle, including strangers.”

Ben Simon, Walker, and their colleagues Raphael Vallat and Aubrey Rossi will publish their findings in the open access journal PLOS Biology on August 23. Walker is the Center for Human Sleep Science’s director. He and Ben Simon are both members of UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Sleeplessness dampens the theory of mind network. The new report describes three separate studies that looked at how sleep deprivation affects people’s willingness to help others. In the first study, the researchers scanned the brains of 24 healthy volunteers using a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) after eight hours of sleep and after a night of no sleep. They discovered that after a sleepless night, areas of the brain that form the theory of mind network, which is engaged when people empathise with others or try to understand other people’s wants and needs, were less active.

Source: ANI