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Good Sleep Makes Us More Kind and Generous
One night of bad sleep can reverberate through the fabric of society, new research suggests
When a lousy night of sleep leaves you fuzzy or cranky the next day, helping others might be the last thing on your mind. Indeed, new research finds that’s pretty much what happens, and the effects can reverberate through networks of friends and family and on into society itself. On the flip-side, sleeping better can make you a kinder, gentler, more giving citizen — a better human.
Plenty of research shows a single night of insufficient sleep leads to daytime drowsiness, irritability, reduced mental and physical capacity, more stress and anxiety, and poorer health overall. Previous studies have also established that lack of quality sleep affects our ability to process emotions and even to feel empathy, the ability to understand the feelings of others and see things from their perspective. Empathy is a cornerstone of compassion, the desire to actually help others. You can see where this is going…
The new study adds a result to the empathy+compassion equation, revealing that when people don’t get enough sleep, or their sleep quality is low, they’re more withdrawn from others and less generous.
