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We humans are a social species, we do things in groups, gather in restaurants, bars, music venues, and public spaces together. We work together, play sports together, join clubs and associations. We also help others and give immense amounts of money to charities of all sorts. Yes, we are a very social — unless we get a bad night’s sleep.
Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration — we are still social after a bad night’s sleep — we are just less social on average according to research just out.
Eti Ben Simon from the University of California Berkley collected data in three separate scenarios to come to this conclusion.
The first scanned the brains of 24 participants after a normal night’s sleep and after no sleep. We know this causes multiple disruptions in our cognitive ability and how the brain connects and communicates to itself and with the body. In fact, all of us who have missed a night’s sleep know this from experience.
But what they specifically found is that regions of the brain associated with empathy and relating to other people’s wants and needs was less active.
A second study tracked 100 people online over three or four nights. They tracked their sleep patterns and then measured their willingness to help others in different ways such…