Moderate Sleep Restriction and time-of-day impacts on simple social interactions

Simple bargaining games are the foundation of more complex social interactions, and neuroscience research has shown that deliberative brain processes are necessary for socialdecision making. We study how commonly-experienced adverse sleep states, which can harm deliberative processes, impact outcomes in classic simple bargaining games. We experimentally manipulated and objectively measured sleep in 184 young-adult subjects: each was prescribed one week of sleep restriction and one week of well-rested sleep levels. The optimality of the time-of-day for decisions (early morning or late evening) was also randomly assigned across subjects. Increased sleepiness is estimated to significantly reduce altruism, trust, and trustworthiness. We conclude that commonly experienced adverse sleep states, in particular sleep restriction, reduce prosocial behaviors, and can limit benefits from short-term social interactions. 1Department of Economics & the CERPA (Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis), Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA. 2IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor), Bonn, Germany 3ESI (Economic Science Institute), Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA 4Department of Psychology, Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL, USA.