Chapter 1: How does lack of sleep affect our generosity?
Why does not getting enough sleep make you selfish? Thanks for asking. Not getting a good night's sleep can certainly leave you feeling grumpy and groggy, but can it also make you selfish?
Sleep experts at the University of California, Berkeley certainly seem to think so. And apparently, even losing just one hour of sleep is enough to make you less generous towards others, and that includes friends and family.
How did they discover this?
The team conducted a number of experiments. Over 100 participants were asked to fill out an altruism questionnaire with questions like, Would you help if a stranger stopped to ask for directions while you were in a rush to get to work? They answered on a scale from I would stop to help to I would ignore them.
Results showed that those with poorer quality sleep in general were significantly less generous than people who had slept better. In another experiment, researchers compared answers from the same person, first after a good night's sleep, then after 24 hours without a wink. Results showed a huge 78% decrease in their willingness to help others after having had no sleep.
Brain scans were also taken of some volunteers and revealed that being sleep-deprived reduced activity in the social cognitive brain network, a region involved in social behaviour and empathy. But researchers didn't stop there. The team then tracked more than 3 million charitable donations in the US before and after clocks were put forward for daylight saving time.
They found a 10% drop in donations after the transition, but this decrease was not observed in states that did not put their clocks forward.
So what impact could this have?
Well, considering that more than half of all people in developed countries say they get insufficient sleep, the impact could be quite serious, certainly for people needing directions at least. Links between lack of sleep and mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression are already known. And there is also research to show that it can have an impact on our physical well-being,
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Chapter 2: What experiments were conducted to study sleep and selfishness?
There you have it. Now you know why not getting enough sleep makes you selfish. In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you really will know for sure.