A report from The Indian Express examines the results of a new study that finds sleep deprivation can make a person more likely to be prejudiced.
Sleep deprivation can turn the best of people into nonchalant jerks. Blame your brain for this loss of self-control. Research in the Journal of Applied Psychology opines that less than adequate shut eye can make one more likely to be prejudiced.
Study author Sonia Ghumman, PhD at Department of Management, Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawai, says missing sleep results in depletion of your self-control, thus widening the gaps in your bigotry filter. “If you get less sleep on a daily basis, you get worse at regulating the prejudices you know are wrong,” says Ghumman.
The study further says that an individual who has depleted his/her self-regulatory resources because of a prior activity involving self-control (for example, resisting tempting treats) will be less successful at suppressing prejudice. Sleep, in general, has been shown to have powerful restorative effects on the human body and on executive functions such as decision making.
In contrast, a good night’s sleep is shown to replenish one’s body and is essential for long-term health and mental functioning, says the study.
