You know that friend who always tells stories and you’re like….what the?
That never happened?
WELL...they’re not crazy, just a little sleep deprived!
(And maybe a little crazy.)
Hello hello everyone, Laci Green here for DNews.
Has anyone out there ever had a memory that you SERIOUSLY WEREN’T SURE HAPPENED OR NOT?
Oh yeah.
The struggle is real.
Now scientists are helping us understand this crazy phenomenon.
For the study at UC Irvine, they showed a clip of a man putting a stolen wallet into
his jacket pocket to two groups of students.
Half of the participants then went to bed, while the other half stayed up - all night.
In the morning, they read a text account of the crime with false details about what had
happened - it said he put the wallet into his jeans pocket instead.
Between the two groups, those that were sleep deprived were significantly more likely to
recall that the video actually showed the wallet being tucked into his jeans.
This kind of test is called “event coding”, and it shows us that people code events differently
if they haven’t slept.
We already know that memories are a reallllly sketchy source of information - DO NOT TRUST
ANYTHING YOU REMEMBER.
Our memories are so easily influenced by things like stereotypes and expectations, what other
people have said about the memory, how you felt about the memory and so on.
In fact, every memory you have is slightly distorted every time you visit it.
So, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that sleep deprivation can REALLY take you down
to crazy town remembering things that didn’t even happen if it’s subtle enough.
This study isn’t the first with these findings.
Another study they conducted found that with less than 5 hours of sleep, people incorporated
more misinformation and even claimed they had seen video footage that didn’t exist.
The studies, which were published in the journal Psychological Science, are part of an ongoing
effort to improve the reliability of eyewitness accounts of crimes.
The researchers say that sleep deprivation is on the rise - earlier this year the CDC
even called it a public health epidemic, blaming the epidemic for more and more car accidents,
industrial errors, and fatal medical errors.
The data shows about 30% of people experiencing sleep deprivation at least once within the
past month.
With this becoming so common, the researchers think that we may need new legal requirements
for eyewitnesses -- like having been rested when they saw the crime.
Or, not having all kinds of suggestions and interrogations from the police about what
happened for hours on end.
So folks, have you experienced sleep deprivation lately?
Noticed it messing with your memory recollection?
Tell me about it down below and I’ll see you next time with more DNews updates!