Irritability, puffy eyes and drowsiness are all well known consequences of not getting enough sleep.
But alarming new research suggests that consistently failing to get enough shut eye could raise the risk you’ll start to believe conspiracy theories.
According to the scientists, who tracked over 1,000 Brits, those who suffered a month of restless sleep were more likely to endorse farfetched, unproven beliefs — such as the earth is flat and that the 9/11 attacks were planned by the US government.
Research on what drives conspiracy theories has long suggested personality traits may be to blame, with those who are insecure, paranoid and impulsive more prone to accepting them.
The fresh study, however, has suggested that poor sleep could trigger such changes in personality.
Experts today, who labelled the findings important, claimed that addressing sleep quality could equip us to better ‘critically evaluate information and resist misleading narratives’.
Dr Daniel Jolley, an assistant professor in social psychology at the University of Nottingham and study lead author, also said: ‘Sleep is crucial for mental health and cognitive functioning.
‘Poor sleep has been shown to increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and paranoia — factors that also contribute to developing conspiracy beliefs.
According to the scientists, who tracked over 1,000 Brits, those who suffered a month of restless sleep were more likely to endorse conspiracy beliefs
‘Our research suggests that improving sleep quality could serve as a protective factor against the spread of conspiratorial thinking.’
Conspiracy theories are alternative explanations for major events that reject the accepted narrative in favour of more fantastical plots.
For example, because Earth’s surface looks and feels flat, so-called ‘Flat Earthers’ denounce all evidence to the contrary.
Meanwhile, after NASA delayed its upcoming moon mission, moon landing deniers rushed to social media to claim that the space agency couldn’t return to the moon since it never went there in the first place.
Other popular theories include vaccinations being a way to implant a chip in people’s bodies.
In the fresh study, researchers from the University of Nottingham carried out two assessments involving 1,000 participants to assess how sleep affects motivations for conspiratorial thinking.
In the first, 540 volunteers completed a tick box sleep quality scale assessment before reading an article about the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris.
Some were exposed to a conspiracy narrative suggesting a deliberate cover-up, while others read a factual account attributing the fire to an accident.
Sleep deprivation can lead to obesity, memory loss, diabetes, heart disease, heightened and unstable emotions, impaired ability to learn and a reduced immune response, leaving you vulnerable to disease
Writing in the Journal of Health Psychology, the researchers said those with poorer sleep quality were ‘significantly’ more likely to believe the conspiratorial version of events.
‘Exposure to conspiracy theories leads to higher conspiracy beliefs and poor sleep quality amplifies this effect,’ they added.
In a second study, the scientists sought to explain the link between the two, tracking 575 volunteers who completed personality questionnaires.
They were asked about their emotional state at that moment in time, with options including ‘anger’, ‘mad’, ‘rage’, ‘dread’ and ‘nervous’.
How likely they were to be suffering from depression was also assessed in a questionnaire as well as how paranoid they felt over the last month.
They were then asked on their thoughts regarding specific well-known conspiracy theories including climate change and the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The scientists found the impact of depression on both sleep quality and the likelihood of developing ‘conspiracy mentality’ was ‘significant’.
Anger and paranoia also played a role, they added.
From the Flat Earth theory (artist’s impression) to the moon landing hoax, conspiracy theories have surged in recent years
It comes as separate research, involving almost 400 people published in 2023, suggested that those struggling with insomnia were more likely to feel their emotions were out of control.
This led to a higher likelihood of adopting a ‘conspiracy mentality’ and experiencing ‘psychological distress’, the scientists from the University of Hong Kong said.
Last year, a study found that around one in six Brits suffer insomnia, yet 65 per cent never seek help for their sleep problem.
The poll of 2,000 people, by The Sleep Charity, found nine in ten experience some sort of sleep problem, while one in two engage in high-risk or dangerous behaviours when unable to sleep.
Poor sleep has been linked to a number of health problems, including cancer, stroke and infertility.
Experts have long advised that waking up during the night does not necessarily mean you have insomnia, which figures suggest affects up to 14million Brits.
Still, sleep deprivation takes its own toll, from irritability and reduced focus in the short term, to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
According to the American Sleep Association, nearly 70 million Americans also have a sleep disorder.
