Researchers Find Surprising Link Between Sleep and Kindness
Just when we thought we knew all about sleep science
Sleep seems to be the new magic pill for an awesome day.
Just when we thought we’d had enough — even getting sated with all the sleep noise from sleep scientists — researchers surprise us with another unwelcome effect of insufficient sleep.
Over three studies — among a few individuals, 100 people, and 3 million donors — researchers peek behind the sheets to find how sleep affected generosity.
Coming from Eti Ben Simon, Raphael Vallat, Aubrey Rossi, and Matthew Walker, all of UC Berkeley, this intriguing study shows that sleep represents one previously unidentified factor dictating whether humans choose to help each other.
They found that areas of the brain which are engaged when people empathize with others or try to understand other people’s wants and needs were less active after a sleepless night.
“When people lose one hour of sleep, there’s a clear hit on our innate human kindness and our motivation to help other people in need,” they noted.
To think sleep could determine how soon a starving baby gets some much-needed donor food or how well a family fleeing conflict gets resettled is mind-boggling…
