Family members, don’t do this after staying up late... or you will regret it

We often face various important decisions in our lives. Should we go to seek Buddhist scriptures or return to Gao Laozhuang? Should we love orange cats or civet cats? Should we choose red or blue pills? Should we tobe or not tobe? These are all difficult questions.

There are many things that require decision making, but people are not always rational. Emotions, cognitive biases, social pressure, time constraints, and various objective factors can affect the rationality of decision making. We all know that we should not make important decisions when we are emotionally aroused or lack information, and we also know that we should try not to make important decisions hastily when time is tight. But have you noticed? A person's physical condition is also an important factor that affects rationality. A recent study revealed that lack of sleep increases the risk of decision making[1].

The study compared people who had a normal rest with those who pulled an all-nighter, and found that acute sleep deprivation impaired the connection between the brain and behavior and weakened the brain's response to decision-making outcomes. In other words, sleep deprivation may make it more difficult for us to judge the risks and consequences of decisions, making it easier to make wrong decisions.

Of course, this is not the first time that people have noticed the relationship between sleep and decision-making. To date, there has been a considerable amount of literature exploring the impact of insufficient sleep on people's decision-making ability from multiple angles.

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The importance of sleep is beyond doubt. Even without reading scientific research literature, intuitive life experience can make everyone realize this. Every time we stay up late, whether actively or passively, we have experienced fatigue, slow reaction, abnormal emotions, etc. Some people also have physical discomfort such as dizziness, headache, palpitations, chest pain, etc. In previous scientific research, there are also numerous studies on the correlation between sleep and cognitive function, memory level, emotional health, endocrine level, metabolic function and various diseases.

On the cognitive level, past studies have found that lack of sleep increases people’s risk-taking tendency[2]. By changing the activity of some brain regions and the secretion of dopamine, lack of sleep can cause the brain to misjudge risks[3]. People may be overly optimistic about the probability and value of rewards, but underestimate the possible risks and losses.

Lack of sleep makes the reward-related areas of the brain overly responsive to rewards. This means that even smaller rewards will be over-magnified, making people overly interested in them. At the same time, the brain is more inclined to pursue immediate, short-term rewards while ignoring long-term benefits. This is why people who stay up late are always more eager for high-calorie foods such as fried chicken, barbecue, and cola, and it is easy to overeat, but rarely suddenly crave chicken breast and broccoli.

Lack of sleep can also affect the area of ​​the brain responsible for cognitive control[3], which can reduce people's ability to inhibit responses when analyzing specific problems, making them more easily distracted by external factors and unable to concentrate on complex thinking. People can also make hasty decisions more frequently without sufficient thought and evaluation because they find it difficult to inhibit impulsive behavior. This is why many people are more likely to make impulse purchases in bed late at night.

In addition to the "rational" dimensions such as reward mechanism, risk assessment, self-control, and concentration, staying up late or lack of sleep will also affect the rationality of people's decision-making through the "emotional" characteristic of emotions.

For example, lack of sleep can amplify responses to negative emotional stimuli by affecting the amygdala in the human brain[4]. People may misjudge the degree of hostility of others and react too strongly. Staying up late can also significantly increase people’s anxiety[5], making them more prone to mood swings, aggression, depression, and self-destructive tendencies. These changes not only damage people’s emotional health and social skills, but also reduce the accuracy of people’s judgment when dealing with daily affairs and making future plans, and induce people to make irrational decisions under pressure.

In short, lack of sleep affects both rational thinking and emotional experience. So if you want to make an important decision, you should not make it when you are emotional or in a hurry, and it is also best not to stay up late or lack sleep. In any case, get enough sleep first.

References

[1]Mao, Tianxin et al. "Sleepdeprivationattenuatesneuralresponsestooutcomesfromriskydecision-making."Psychophysiology,e14465.31Oct.2023,doi:10.1111/psyp.14465

[2] Lei, Yuetal. "Neuralcorrelatesofincreasedrisk-takingpropensityinsleep-deprivedpeoplealongwithachangingrisklevel." Brainimagingandbehaviorvol.11,6(2017):1910-1921.doi:10.1007/s11682-016-9658-7

[3]KrauseAJ,SimonEB,ManderBA,etal.Thesleep-deprivedhumanbrain.NatRevNeurosci.2017;18(7):404-418.doi:10.1038/nrn.2017.55

[4]YooSS,GujarN,HuP,JoleszFA,WalkerMP.Thehumanemotionalbrainwithoutsleep--aprefrontalamygdaladisconnect.CurrBiol.2007;17(20):R877-R878.doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.08.007

[5]BenSimonE,RossiA,HarveyAG,WalkerMP.Overanxiousandunderslept[publishedcorrectionappearsinNatHumBehav.2020Dec;4(12):1321].NatHumBehav.2020;4(1):100-110.doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0754-8

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Doctor Fei Dao Duan Yu

Reviewer: Li Jingjing Professor and Chief Physician, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital