Sleep loss = Optimism bias

[Populist_Prole]

Just read an interesting piece that really corroborates behavior I have noticed. Here's the article:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=short-on-sleep-brain-optimistically-2011-03-08

It's a study whereby it was shown that people deprived of sleep will have their judgment impaired in a way that makes them consider only gains, rather than risks. I know, many will be thinking "sleep loss causes bad judgment is not exactly news", but it's the way it plays out and has such far reaching effects on our country.

Doubtless we always hear of hard charging, hard nose executives who make ascetic living of long days and short nights almost de-rigueur to the position. I can't help but to notice parallel to the business phenomenon today of risky, even reckless pursuit of short term gains ( selling the seed corn ) even though it jeopardizes the long term ability to be a going concern. This is so common today in business/Wall St.

Amongst my work peers I ( and like-minded co-workers ) notice that there are a sizable group who have a single-minded determination to work all the overtime they can. Where I'm at, it's 8 hours over or nothing. That's a 17 hour day. Many even work their days off! What gets me is how many either relish ( to the point of anticipating with glee ) the ability to work that much. It goes beyond getting over a rough financial spot. It's more about having ever rising expectations as to what's a "normal" income and the ability to fill their McMansions with ever more stuff. They seem utterly oblivious to the fact that they look like hell, obviously feel like hell, are less efficient, and indeed have no time at all to enjoy their artificially bought lifestyles. They always seem to be sick with colds more often too, and they always come in and infect everyone else rather than heal at home. It's like this single minded focus on a big W-2 number masks the fact they can't work 17 hour days and get 4 or 5 hours of sleep on a sustainable basis.

Anybody care to compare notes?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. In college I spent alot of long nights studying and was sleep deprived...

Given this new information, I guess it is no surprise that I felt I would do better on exams than I actually ended up doing. lol.

[silverweb]

2. Makes sense.

Sleep deprivation increases dopamine, "...which is linked to pleasure and reward, might be at least partly to blame for sleep-deprived subjects' increasing sense that they have better odds of winning big—and their lessening fear of losing."

I remember reading some time ago that sleep deprivation was being used as a possible treatment for depression in bipolar patients, but can also kick them into mania.

We have so much to learn.

[SheilaT]

3. I'm with you all the way.

Maybe one night going short of sleep could be okay. But I've noticed on just an observational basis, people who are chronically sleep deprived tend on the whole to be depressed and pessimistic. I've also noticed the increase in trivial illnesses, and overall poorer judgment in all matters. Personally, I ascribe my phenomenal health in no small part to the fact that during my twenties I almost always got plenty of sleep. Even during the years when I had two kids, starting with pregnancy and their infancy, I did my best to get sufficient sleep. That can be a bit tricky in the early months, but the years before and the more recent years, now that they are grown up, when I can almost always get as much sleep as I want, has paid off.

I've always thought "You can sleep when you're dead" motto is totally stupid. I've also noticed that those who sleep the least seem to tend to die early. Your immune system needs sleep to regenerate.

There are some books out there on this very topic, and I've read several of them, but can't recall titles or authors. Invariably they conclude that most of us need more sleep than we realize, let alone are getting. While we do have variations in our need for sleep, there's nothing inherently superior about needing less sleep than someone else. Or going about sleep-deprived. On a similar note, there's nothing inherently superior about early rising compared to late rising.

[Populist_Prole]

4. Never heard the "You can sleep when you're dead" motto. Crazy.

I imagine the original coiner of that phrase probably ran a sweatshop.

Your last paragraph says so much. I'm not sure at what point the treadmill makers ( or Rat-Race promoters ) were able to slip their philosophy into our culture, but I constantly chafe at those who regard getting 8 hours sleep ( that is, making a defined effort to ) as a form of sloth. As if not taking care of one self's body will bring some reward down the road thanking them for their sacrifice. But sacrifice they will.

[salvorhardin]

5. The phrase goes at least as far back as 1928

Way Of Sacrifice
Fritz von Unruh
A.A. Knopf, 1928

http://goo.gl/rJFyr