Lack of sleep is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension and sexual dysfunction. Now a new study from the University of California – Berkeley says that sleep also affects social interactions, and if you are low on sleep you’re less willing to help others. The researchers tracked more than 100 people online over three or four nights and measured the quality of their sleep – how long they slept, how many times they woke up – and then assessed their desire to help others, such as holding an elevator door open for someone else, volunteering or helping an injured stranger on the street. They found that a decrease in the quality of someone’s sleep from one night to the next predicted a significant decrease in the desire to help other people from one subsequent day to the next. Those with poor sleep the night prior were the ones that reported being less willing and keen to help others the following day.
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