Less sleep makes for bad decision-making
Research indicates slumber-deprived operators involved in Chernobyl meltdown
Research indicates slumber-deprived operators involved in Chernobyl meltdown. STOCK IMAGE
WASHINGTON:
Sleep-deprived people are more prone to taking disastrous decisions that often make a difference between life and death in real life crisis situations, says a new study.”Our findings tell us that putting sleep-deprived people in perilous environments is an inherently risky business and raises a number of medical, legal and financial implications,” said Hans Van Dongen, director of Sleep and Performance Research Centre at the Washington State University Spokane.
Investigations into the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in Ukraine, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger all concluded that sleep-deprived operators played a role in causing the accidents.
To prove this, thirteen participants were randomly selected to go 62 hours without sleep two days into the study while the other half of the group was allowed to rest. For six days and nights, they performed a specially designed reversal learning task to test their ability to use feedback to guide future decisions.
In the task, the participants were shown a series of numbers that, unknown to them, were pre-assigned to have either a “go” (response) or “no go” (non-response) value. Every time they correctly identified a number with a “go” value, they received a fictitious monetary reward. Errors resulted in a loss. After a while, both the sleep-deprived group and the controls started to catch on and selected the right numbers.
After that the researchers reversed the contingencies so that participants had to withhold a response to the “go” numbers and respond to the “no go” numbers. The switch confounded the sleep-deprived participants. Even after being shown 40 numbers with reversed contingencies, they had almost zero success. On the other hand, the rested participants would catch on to the switch within eight-16 numbers.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2015.
Sleep-deprived people are more prone to taking disastrous decisions that often make a difference between life and death in real life crisis situations, says a new study.”Our findings tell us that putting sleep-deprived people in perilous environments is an inherently risky business and raises a number of medical, legal and financial implications,” said Hans Van Dongen, director of Sleep and Performance Research Centre at the Washington State University Spokane.
Investigations into the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in Ukraine, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger all concluded that sleep-deprived operators played a role in causing the accidents.
To prove this, thirteen participants were randomly selected to go 62 hours without sleep two days into the study while the other half of the group was allowed to rest. For six days and nights, they performed a specially designed reversal learning task to test their ability to use feedback to guide future decisions.
In the task, the participants were shown a series of numbers that, unknown to them, were pre-assigned to have either a “go” (response) or “no go” (non-response) value. Every time they correctly identified a number with a “go” value, they received a fictitious monetary reward. Errors resulted in a loss. After a while, both the sleep-deprived group and the controls started to catch on and selected the right numbers.
After that the researchers reversed the contingencies so that participants had to withhold a response to the “go” numbers and respond to the “no go” numbers. The switch confounded the sleep-deprived participants. Even after being shown 40 numbers with reversed contingencies, they had almost zero success. On the other hand, the rested participants would catch on to the switch within eight-16 numbers.
The study appeared in the journal Sleep.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2015.