A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience is bad news for anyone making important decisions without a lot of sleep, like, you know, late night gamblers.
Duke University researchers assessed the effects of sleep deprivation on 29 adult volunteers.
They took part in several economic decision-making tasks in the morning after a normal night of sleep and again one morning after a night of sleep deprivation. Guess what?
Using MRI scans to study brain activity, researchers found that those suffering from lack of sleep had increased activity in regions of the brain that assess positive outcomes and decreased activity in regions that process negative outcomes.
That means, lack of sleep can cause increased confidence to make bad decisions without considering the consequences.
This is especially dangerous to late night gamblers, as the lead author of the study Vinod Venkatraman explains:
“Late-night gamblers are fighting more than just the unfavorable odds of gambling machines; they are fighting a sleep-deprived brain’s tendency to implicitly seek gains while discounting the impact of potential losses. Countermeasures that combat fatigue and improve alertness may be inadequate for overcoming these decision biases.”
If you’re heading to the casino to make some major bets, do not undervalue the importance of a good night’s sleep!
[Image via AP Images.]
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