Lack of sleep will worsen your gambling habits

Lack of Sleep Worsens Gambling Habits

Lack of sleep has been shown in a recent study to promote compulsive gambling habits. Brain activity among sleep-deprived people tend to make them overly optimistic about their chances, researchers from Duke University said.

The report published in the medical journal Neuroscience involved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of those suffering from lack of sleep while being made to perform gambling tasks.

"Using a risky decision-making task, we showed that sleep deprivation shifted most persons' bias from avoiding loss to pursuing gain," the study authors wrote.

The researchers tested the decision-making skills of 29 participants after a night with adequate sleep and then again after short nap hours. Lack of sleep "appears to create an optimism bias, for example, participants behave as if positive consequences are more likely (or more valuable) and as if negative consequences are less likely (or less harmful)" the report said.

The part of the brain called the vetromedial prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for computing value and, for the gambler, assessing the odds and risk, tend to be more active than normal. The gambler becomes impaired with his thinking that he will eventually hit the jackpot, even if the odds are against him.

"Late-night gamblers are fighting more than just the unfavorable odds of gambling machines," said study author Vinod Venkatraman. "They are fighting a sleep-deprived brain's tendency to implicitly seek gains while discounting the impact of potential losses."

Unfortunately for these gamblers, drinking coffee, exercise or getting some fresh air will not markedly reduce the fatigue caused by lack of sleep.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday March 09 2011, 4:30 AM EST. Ref: Inquirer. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0