LACK OF SLEEP MAKES US SELFISH The Innate Desire to Help Others Disappears with Sleep Deprivation

Altruism is one of the most beautiful qualities of the human being and has existed since the very appearance of humans on earth. Cooperation is the force that has presided over the construction and maintenance of our civilizations by individuals.

However, human motivations to help each other depend on often very different factors: parents tend to help their children naturally, some groups are more individualistic while others develop collective living to the extreme, inhabitants of big cities are less likely to help others than those in small villages… But above all, an individual can have natural empathy or, on the contrary, be completely devoid of it.

Why these differences?

Well, the decision-making process that involves helping others, “prosocial helping,” involves brain areas that are now well-identified, known as the “social cognition network.” These brain regions are activated when we consider others’ needs, as well as when we choose whether or not to help them. Moreover, when these brain areas are damaged, there is a loss of empathy and compassion, which can at worst lead to a true “acquired sociopathy.”

But could it be that even in the absence of such lesions, sleep plays a role in…