2023-12-06 07:29:49
Politicians, police, military and rescue personnel are just some of the high-stress jobs that should avoid making important decisions following a sleepless night, according to research that provides insight into the importance of sleep on cognitive performance and well-being. emotional of those who are under stress.
With little information on the impact of lack of sleep on risky decision making at the neuroimaging level, researchers from the University of Ottawa and the University of Pennsylvania (USA) found that a 24-hour period of sleep deprivation significantly impacted the decision-making process.
Researchers have observed that poor sleep has a dampening effect on neural responses to the outcomes of your choices. In other words, people tend to exhibit fewer positive emotions in response to winning outcomes and fewer negative emotions when faced with losses following an all-nighter compared to their initial well-rested condition.
“Common sense dictates that if people suffer from sleep loss, sleep disturbances or a sleep disorder, their cognitive function will be affected, their attention and efficiency will decrease. But there is also an emotional impact,” says Zhuo Fang, a scientist at data from the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
“If you experience even one night of lack of sleep, there will be an impact, even at the neuronal level. Therefore, we wanted to combine brain imaging and behavior to see that impact,” adds the researcher, who is affiliated with the Brain Research Institute. and the Mind of Ottawa.
The study, which evaluated the impact of one night of total sleep deprivation in 56 healthy adults, found that a single night of total sleep loss significantly decreased brain activation for winning and losing, suggesting that acute sleep loss may have a buffering effect on neural responses to decision outcomes during risk taking.
Furthermore, total sleep deprivation had the detrimental effect of altering the relationship between the neural response and the individual’s risk behavior, which might be related to the altered perception of risk taking.
While numerous studies have previously illustrated the broad effects of sleep deprivation on various brain and cognitive functions, including attention processing, memory consolidation, and learning, this study addresses the specific impact of sleep deprivation on decision making.
“These results underscore the importance of maintaining adequate sleep and how people should refrain from making important decisions when experiencing chronic or acute sleep deprivation,” said Fang, who co-authored the study with Tianxin Mao of the University of Pennsylvania along with the author. corresponding Hengyi Rao.
“In specific professions where decision makers must operate with cumulative sleep loss, specialized training or fatigue risk management may be necessary to enable them to manage such situations effectively.”
1701848150
#Research #clarifies #role #sleep #cognitive #performance #emotional #wellbeing #decision #making #Society
