Study: Sleep deprivation affects ability to read facial expressions

Lack of sleep could be hindering your ability to read facial expressions.

In a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience on July 15, 2015, researchers from the University of California-Berkeley tested two hypotheses related to sleep and how we perceive facial expressions.

The study included 18 young adults between the ages of 18 and 30. They were each presented with 70 various facial expressions and asked to categorize them as “threatening” or “non-threatening” — once after a night of sleep and once after a night of being sleep-deprived for 24 hours. It found those who had been sleep-deprived classified more faces as threatening than those who were well rested.

Devon Peddie, a rising junior at Texas Tech University, says lack of sleep has an impact on how she interacts with others.

“I get very short tempered with people and the smallest actions agitate me,” she says.

And Peddie isn’t alone. The irritability caused by sleep deprivation leads some to avoid human interaction altogether.

Other data in the study indicated that lack of sleep hinders the brain’s ability to detect various social cues.

“Facial expressions convey some of the most valuable social and emotional signals in our environment,” co-author Andrea Goldstein-Piekarski told The Daily Californian.

Another interesting finding was that lack of sleep decreases the effectiveness of the connections between the heart and the brain, as evidenced by heart rates.

“Sleep deprivation appears to dislocate the body from the brain,” senior author Matthew Walker said in a release. “You can’t follow your heart.”

The study also noted the benefits of REM sleep, saying that it has the ability to recalibrate the brain and enhance your ability to discern social signals more accurately.

According to a 2013 Gallup Poll, 46% of 18- to 29-year-olds reported getting six hours or less of sleep per night. In addition, 48% said that they got as much sleep as they needed and 51% said they would feel better if they got more sleep.

“Insufficient sleep removes the rose tint to our emotional world, causing an overestimation of threat. This may explain why people who report getting too little sleep are less social and more lonely,” Walker said.

Erika Heck, a rising senior at Bowling Green State University, says the effects of sleep deprivation take a toll on her mental health.

“When I am sleep deprived, I’m either incredibly rude or depressed. I have depression regardless, but sleep deprivation emphasizes it,” Heck says.

In a study released last year based on data from 2009, poor sleep affected GPA as much as binge drinking and use of marijuana in college students.

As for the implications of poor sleep, Goldstein-Piekarski said to think about individuals in highly stressful environments.

“Consider the implications for students pulling all-nighters, emergency room medical staff, military fighters in war zones and police officers on graveyard shifts.”