Sleepless and Alone: The Impact of Sleep Loss on Human Social Behavior

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• Eti Ben Simon, The Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California Berkeley
• Friday 20 September 2024, 15:00-16:00
• Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology, Downing Site, Cambridge.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Yara Kyrychenko.

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Imagine a world where people are increasingly isolated, anxious, and unwilling to help one another. Could something as simple as lack of sleep be contributing to this troubling scenario? Our research suggests that insufficient sleep may indeed be reshaping the very fabric of our societies.

Through a series of studies, we’ve uncovered how sleep loss—even in modest amounts—transforms otherwise healthy individuals into lonelier, more asocial, and significantly more anxious versions of themselves. By identifying the neural and sleep mechanisms underlying these complex social and emotional impairments, our work opens new avenues for understanding and potentially addressing these issues.

The first set of studies reveals a disturbing cycle: sleep-deprived individuals physically distance themselves from others and report increased feelings of loneliness, leading to greater social withdrawal. This behavior is linked to hyperactivity in parietal brain regions responsible for monitoring personal space. Strikingly, others perceive this social withdrawal and, in turn, become less inclined to interact with sleep-deprived individuals, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of isolation.

The second set of studies uncovers how sleep loss, whether acute or chronic, significantly reduces altruistic behavior. Sleep-deprived individuals were markedly less likely to offer help to others compared to when they were well-rested. Neural imaging showed decreased activity in key areas of the brain’s social cognition network, known to facilitate prosocial behavior. We even found that losing just one hour of sleep due to Daylight Saving Time transitions measurably reduced real-world charitable donations.

Finally, our research highlights the emotional toll of sleep deprivation. Just one night without sleep led to a significant increase in anxiety among healthy young adults. This anxiogenic effect correlated with impaired activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and reduced amygdala connectivity. Conversely, a full night’s sleep offered anxiety-reducing benefits, with the amount of slow-wave activity during non-REM sleep serving as a predictor. These findings offer sleep as a potential new therapeutic target for anxiety treatment and underscore its causal role in anxiety disorders.

In conclusion, inadequate sleep emerges as a powerful force shaping human emotional and social behavior. It creates a vicious cycle of emotional dysregulation, social isolation, and diminished prosocial conduct. Given the essential nature of human sociality in maintaining cooperative, civil societies—and the reported decline in sufficient sleep across many developed nations—the implications of our findings are urgent and profound.

This talk is part of the Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS) series.

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