The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Decision-Making - Term Paper Example

? THE IMPACT OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION ON DECISION-MAKING The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Decision-Making Sleep is a part of the body’s natural healingprocess, and many studies were published supporting this claim. But sleep is not just important for the body’s healing; it is also essential to various neural processes such as the encoding of memory, insight formation, memory consolidation, and other important cognitive processes (Ellenbogen, 2005; Van Der Werf, et al., 2009). In the event that the body fails to have enough sleep, cognitive and behavioral impairments can affect a person, especially when it comes to mental processes, such as logical thinking and decision-making (Ellenbogen, 2005). Lack of sleep must not be taken lightly, as lapses in judgment can occur, which would not only prove costly to the person but to other people as well (Durmer & Dinges, 2005). Due to the importance of sleep in the human psyche and in turn to everyday living, sufficient sleep must not only be an everyday goal, but also given utmost priority. Biology of Sleep Deprivation Modernity created many technological advancements in order to study various processes happening in the human body, and among these are imaging modalities to assess the neurological basis as to why sleep is essential in cognitive processes. Using positron-emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or other imaging modalities available, it has been established that neural processes can be assessed using a rating system called regional cerebral glucose metabolic rate (rCMRglu), wherein higher rates of rCMRglu translate to higher brain activity, and vice versa (Thomas, et al., 1998). However, once the number of hours of sleep has been decreased, aside from lower rates of rCMRglu in the brain, particularly the areas governing decision-making such as the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices, and the thalamus (Killgore, et al., 2006; Thomas, et al., 1998). There is also a decrease in alertness and cognitive performance, which could result in faulty decision-making. In addition, midbrain signals also decrease, resulting to delays in response times and increased risk-taking behaviors due to increased dopamine levels (Menz, Buchel, & Peters, 2012). Aside from imaging of the brain, other tools such as electroencephalogram (EEG) are also used to measure brain activity based on the frequencies of brain waves emitted during sleep. It is important to note that sound sleep, which consists of both REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep along with high emissions of slow-wave delta frequencies and lower emissions of high-frequency alpha waves must be attained in order for the brain to maintain its cognitive processes, as it has also been known that shallow sleep also causes similar effects to total sleep deprivation which not only decreases brain activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortices and increases brain waves with alpha frequencies but also affects the hippocampal functioning, which governs memory and learning (Van Der Werf, et al., 2009). Lastly, along with the negative impacts of sleep deprivation on cognition, there are also increased dangers with vulnerability of the body to high levels of stress, as the lack of sleep not only decreases behavior control capacities, but also elevates stress hormone levels such as cortisol, further increasing the chances of committing hasty or erroneous decisions (Berka, et al., 2008). While there has been individual differences with regards to stress tolerance limits, most members of the population are still easily-affected by the detrimental effects of the lack of sufficient sleep, thus it is warrantless to simply ignore the effects of sleep deprivation on basic cognitive abilities of people. Based on the mechanisms involved in brain function and the effects of sleep, it can be deduced that most errors on decision-making processes can be attributed to the decreased cognitive and learning abilities, as well as memory retention capacities of the brain. Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Cognition While long waking hours occurring singly normally do not pose a threat, frequent periods of restless sleep can accumulate and prevent people’s neurological processes to rest fully. If an individual is unable to gain enough sleep due to various factors such as work, mood problems, environmental overstimulation and other kinds of stressors, sleep deprivation occurs (Baranski, et al, 2007; Harrison & Horne, 2000). Some models were established with regards to the effects of fatigue from insufficient sleep on multitasking capabilities, making sleep deprivation a major factor in the occurrence of human error and higher accident risks (Gunzelmann, et al., 2009). The lack of enough sleep has detrimental causes such as impairments of cognition and behavioral controls due to the brain getting over-stimulation and reduced neural processes (Ellenbogen, 2005). Individually, sleep-deprivation can cause persons to have lapses in judgment and memory, which cause them to often gravitate towards risky choices, increased optimism, elevated expectation of gains, slowed reaction times, and even failure to recall important memories (Barnes & Hollenbeck, 2009; Gunzelmann, et al., 2009; Mosier, et al., 2012; Venkatraman, et al., 2007). Also, high rates of accidents such as road mishaps are tied to the lack of sleep due to the problems caused by deprivation of rest, which shows the importance of sufficient sleep in cognitive processes (Durmer & Dinges, 2005). In addition, behavioral problems such as anxiety disorders, aggression, and depression are also caused by sleep loss and deprivation, aside from the impairment in logical thinking, memory recall, and learning (Barnes & Hollenbeck, 2009). However, these issues can be prevented or even reversed once subjects are allowed sufficient sleep and rest (Durmer & Dinges, 2005; Harrison & Horne, 2000). Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Decision-Making Skills Insufficient sleep among adults have been known to cause numerous negative consequences, attributed to the dysfunctional cognition, thinking and learning, as well as behavioral control. One of the most relevant aspects of decreasing the number of hours of sound sleeping is committing inaccuracies in judgment, along with an increase in gain and optimistic expectations, and reduction in risk-perception processes (Ellenbogen, 2005). Several studies concerned with how sleep deprivation affects how people judge situations and respond correspondingly revealed the differences between the behavioral patterns of those with enough and lacking sleep. One study showed that faulty perceptions of incoming objects happen to drivers that had insufficient sleep, resulting to higher rates of accidents (Hurwitz, 1998). Fatigue, which is also caused by sleep deprivation, increases the likelihood of risky choices, which are associated with the reduction of the brain’s ability to process and analyze the end results of different choices. Another study showed that sleep-deprived participants in gambling actually made riskier decisions in relation to the degree of risks involved in each gambling game, which can be attributed to the loss of assessing risks, inability to learn from consequences, and reduction of the capacity to create and maintain task goals (Venkatraman, et al., 2007). Still, another study was able to show the relationship between two days’ worth of sleep deprivation and the decreased overall performance, which was done by comparing the behavioral patterns of individuals on their sleep-sufficient state (baseline) and sleep-deprived state (experimental or 49-hour deprivation state) in gambling. The results showed that there was a marked variance between the baseline and experimental states of the individuals, wherein the quality of their decision-making skills were lower, there was a reduction in rapid-learning and formation of habits, and high-risk choices were selected over low-risk ones with higher frequencies (Killgore, Balkin, & Wesensten, 2006). While most published studies show the negative effects of sleep deprivation in cognitive and behavioral processes, some studies suggest that gains can also be made from deprivation of sleep, which gives the subject of sleep deprivation mixed reviews. A research focused on the cumulative effects of 30 hours-worth of lack of sleep in the organizational function of teams and each individual member. It can be expected that in individual tasks, sleep-deprived members have higher error rates in terms of choosing the most appropriate or low-risk decision, but this can be mitigated when pooling the ideas into discussion groups (Baranski et al., 2007). The results of the study aligned with the social compensation model by Karau and colleagues, wherein the consensus of the group consisted of the additional efforts of some members to compensate for the “loafing” attitudes of the sleep-deprived members, and due to the need to uplift the group’s overall performance, other members take on the responsibility of thinking in place of the other team members (Karau, et al., 2000, as cited in Baranski et al., 2007). However, despite the positive results of the study, there also have been inconsistencies in some aspects of the experiments, especially in terms of the allocation of sleep-deprived and non-sleep deprived individuals. While the compensation model worked due to the presence of both functional individuals and those with decreased levels of cognitive abilities, this scenario was unable to create a situation wherein all members of the team lack sleep and yet have to come up with sound decisions based on the collaborative efforts of each team member in creating their own solutions to problems. The result was not able to satisfy the issue of whether or not there are cumulative effects of having all members of the team suffering from insufficient sleep while having to use cognition in critical decision-making. A few years after Baranski and colleagues released the results of their research with regards to the effects of sleep deprivation in some but not all members of a team, a much more recent study with regards to how sleep deprivation can affect the overall consequences of decision-making among teams has been conducted by Barnes and Hollenbeck in 2009. While it has been known that sleep-deprivation can greatly affect individual team members but can be compensated for by other team members, studies which aimed to find out the effects of sleep deprivation within an organizational structure found out that despite the expected compensation among team members, there has been higher rates of errors committed in terms of decision-making and problem-solving performance (Baranski, et al., 2007; Barnes & Hollenbeck, 2009). Also, due to the lower rates of problem-solving and dissent among team members, decision errors are inevitably avoided, lesser time on exploring various kinds of solutions, and information becomes too truncated for individuals to fully utilize, which can be detrimental to teams whose members are divergent and thus will have a harder time to create complementary decisions to others’ ideas or suggestions (Barnes & Hollenbeck, 2009). In the likelihood of events turning out as such, decisions are mostly done by only one person, while the rest of the team would just simply accept with without any further complaints or creative thinking, thus increasing potential errors to be committed. While such issues may not be much of a big deal for some kinds of work, when it comes to jobs that entail full concentration and teamwork such as emergency personnel, people in military operations, vehicle drivers such as truckers and airplane pilots, politicians, or company executives, decisions done might have been done hastily and could backlash, resulting to higher costs of covering up for monetary losses or human lives (Barnes & Hollenbeck, 2009; Mosier, et al., 2012; Pace-Schott, et al., 2011; Thomas, et al., 1998). With such negative consequences stemming from the complexities of imbalanced cognition and neural process due to sleep deprivation, it is important to remember that in order to make sound decisions, aside from thorough thinking of various consequences, enough sleep is also needed for the brain to de-clutter itself, in turn aiding in increasing options for selecting better decisions. However, due to the need for longer periods of operation in various kinds of work, such as continuous output in several businesses, healthcare, aviation, processing plants, among others, more and more people are experiencing problems with regards to sleep deprivation, which not only affect their ability in critical thinking but also cause their bodies and quality of life to suffer as well, which could create a cycle of sleeplessness and decreased cognitive performance (Pace-Schott, et al., 2011). Conclusions Sleep is regarded to be an integral component in the maintenance of the processes in higher forms of organisms, such as humans. Its importance lies in the capability of the human body to repair itself during sleep. But many studies were able to show that the body is not the sole benefactor of sleep, and that the brain is able to function well when allowed to have sufficient sleep (Ellenboger, 2005). The lack of sleep causes the brain to decrease cognitive abilities and decision-making functions due to the decrease in the metabolism of glucose, particularly in the frontal and parietal cortices, which govern critical thinking (Berka, et al., 2008; Menz, et al., 2012; Pace-Schott, et al., 2012; Thomas, et al., 1998). Also, the sleep-deprived brain emits alpha waves more frequently than delta waves, which could increase chances of committing erroneous decisions. In addition, higher error rates and increased chances of doing risky behaviors and decisions happen as the result of the combination of decreased brain activity along with the increased levels of dopamine (Durmer & Dinges, 2005;Gunzelmann, et al., 2009; Venkatraman, et al., 2007). Studies not only show how these factors can increase risks of vehicular accidents, but also impact choices being made not just by sleep-deprived individuals but also among teams that lack sound sleep (Barnes & Hollenbeck, 2009). Erroneous choices caused by the inability of thinking of various consequences not only cost these people monetary losses, but also the loss of human lives, which further increases the impact of sleep deprivation on people such as emergency and health personnel, members of the military, as well as executives in large companies (Harrison & Horne, 2000; Mosier, et al., 2012; Thomas, et al., 1998) . 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