Sleep was recently added to the American Heart Association’s list of essential measures for maintaining and improving heart health, and lack of sleep is a known factor in increasing the risk of depression, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and more. Now, a new study published in PLOS Biology has linked lack of sleep to decreased generosity in addition to its other negative consequences.
The authors of the article included three studies at three scales to measure the effects of sleep on empathy: within individuals, across individuals, and across societies. In the first study, 24 participants either slept normally for a night or were sleep deprived for a night. Afterward, they completed a questionnaire on helping others and completed a social cognition task. The results showed that sleep-deprived individuals had less desire to help others regardless of whether they were helping a stranger or friend and regardless of their baseline empathy.
In the second study, 136 people completed a sleep diary and a helping questionnaire for four days while otherwise living their normal lives. When participants got poor sleep, they had less desire to help others the next day. This was true both across individuals and for the same individuals based on variations in sleep from night to night.
The final study assessed charitable donations from the general population during the transition to daylight savings time, when people generally lose an hour of sleep. Over 3 million charitable donations were assessed between 2001 and 2016. The results showed a significant decrease in donations during the transition to daylight savings time compared to the weeks before and after the transition.
Sleep is increasingly recognized as a key to improving and maintaining both physical and mental health. The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that high-quality sleep of sufficient duration is essential for the health of your heart, brain, and social relationships.
Sources: AHA, PLOS Biology, Science Daily
