Sleep and Behaviors: How Sleep Affects Attitudes and Behaviors

This article discusses the impact of sleep on attitudes and behaviors in individuals. It covers the relationship between sleep and emotional reactivity, cognitive abilities, teamwork, and self-perception. The article also highlights the connection between sleep disorders and suicidal tendencies.

Running head: SLEEP AND BEHAVIORS
SLEEP AND BEHAVIORS
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Having the right amount and the right type of sleep is extremely important for the overall
health and well-being of an individual. During the time of sleep, the body mainly works for
supporting the healthy functioning of the brain and thereby helps in maintaining the physical
health. In case of children and young people, sleep is responsible for development of their minds
and body. Studies suggest that when individuals do not get enough sleep, bodies feel tired and
individuals are seen to develop irritable behaviors and feel tired throughout the day (Azad et al.
2015). It becomes hard for individuals to concentrate and remember things and makes them
annoyed and disappointed. Lack of sleep can result in impairment of judgment and can affect the
physical coordination. Not getting enough sleep can hamper the ways by which the individuals
feel, think learn, worse and get along with other people in workplaces and in social circles
(Richardson et al. 2016). Therefore, it can be seen that sleep is intricately associated with the
behaviors and attitudes of human being and this assignment will try to shed more light on the
concept and undertake an in-depth analysis. It will show how sleep can modify behaviors and
attitudes.
Long-term deficiencies in sleep can increase the risk of the chronic health problems like
that of the heart disorders and diabetes. It has the significant impact on the mood and
behaviors of the individuals as well. A study has shown that people who are deprived of sleep
have reported increase in the negative moods like frustration, irritability, anger as well as sadness
along with the decrease in the positive moods (McCan et al. 2015). Sleepiness is often
considered a symptom of mood disorders like that of depression and anxiety. In turn anxiety
and stress results in increasing the agitation and keeping the body in always an aroused,
alert and awakened state. Many of the participants in the studies have also complained of fast
beating of the heart and the breathing is quicker and shallow. Sleep deprived individuals often

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suffer from tiredness and they are seen to remain inactive and less jovial at workplace. A
general feeling of lethargy is considered by the researchers to be a standard symptom of poor
sleep (Emery et al. 2014). Heartburn and palpitations are seen to be more common and therefore
this form of suffering makes them display restless behaviors due to the uneasiness and
suffering that they go through. Lack of proper sleep makes the body is found to be associated
with decreased immune system of the body and this can make individuals more susceptible to
different types of common illness (Smith et al. 2014). This can make the individuals stay away
from office causing potential damage to the career. This can affect the mood and behaviors of
individuals as they can suffer from depression, frustration and even agony.
Lack of sleep can take tolls on the cognitive abilities in individual that might include the
judgment, reaction time, perception and even decision making. Paco et al. (2017) had opined that
about seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness like that of a long tiring day at the office can
result in behavioral changes where the changes can be considered equivalent to that of drinking
two glasses of wine. When the wakefulness is considered to be continued for about 24 hours, it
may act as if the individuals had drunk about four glasses of wine (Chan et al. 2014). Diminished
cognitive performance can be seen to have huge repercussions for different professionals whose
jobs are seen to demand different critical attention for detailing like that of surgeons, pilots and
drivers.
Sleep is seen to be intricately associated with emotional reactivity among the
individuals. Emotional reactivity is seen to increase the emotional reactivity that causes people to
become short tempered and rapid to judge, being more emotionally volatile. Studies have shown
that sleeplessness also makes people less adept in proper management of the emotions while
working (McDonald et al. 2014). One of the studies have examined medical residents and had

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found that loss of sleep always have a direct but negative impact on the ability for management
of their emotions. When individuals are found to be short on sleep, the residents react with
superior unconstructiveness to any forms of disruptions that occur during the time of their
workdays (Waloszek et al. 2015). They are also seen to display any form of less positive
reactions towards different events that would ultimately help them to meet their work-related
goals.
Sleeplessness and empathy are also related. Sleep is seen to be also interfering with the
ability of the individuals in effective processing of the emotional information as well as the
capability of the individuals in gauging their emotions to others in an accurate manner. When
individuals do not have complete quality sleep, they become less attuned to how others are
feeling in the workplace (Fuller et al. 2016). They are also seen to miss out different signals that
they would have taken successfully if they had completed their sleep. Therefore, they often miss
out information that could have been useful in the development of constructive relationship.
Studies are also of the opinion that sleep results in the dampening of the ability for empathizing
for walking in the shoes of another person or to imagine the feelings of others allowing full
consideration to their points of view (Makvandi et al. 2015). A lack of these capabilities like the
key mechanism of emotional intelligence can hinder with teamwork, trust and cooperation.
Therefore, it can be stated that the sleep driven limitations on the empathy as well as emotional
sensitivity can help in creating more conflict not only at work but also on the personal
relationship with the employee (Zhang et al. 2016).
Self-perception and quality of sleep is also intricately associated and this is found to be
one of the greatest contributors to the development of attitude. Many of the studies have argued
that it is not only the feelings of others that individuals with less sleep fail to identify. Sleep loss

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is also seen to comprise their own perceptions of self as well as their ability for effective
functioning (Tagler et al. 2017). Lacking the sleep along with impaired judgment can make
people more likely in engaging in the risky behaviors for making risky decisions. Sleep
disadvantaged people are seen to be very poor adjudicators on the degree to which tiredness can
affect them and their presentation. Hence, for effective self-perception development, proper
quality sleep can act as important contributor (Watling, 2014).
A growing body of researchers has also discussed the importance between how
improper sleep can affect behaviors and attitudes of individuals participating in teamwork and
team performance. Studies are of the opinion that sleep deficiency can affect team choice making
as well as decision time, accuracy and problem solving (Nacar et al. 2015). There had been a
study that had identified that people who work in teams are seen to have less self-related
performance deterioration than the individuals who are working separately. Again, other studies
have suggested that although the claimed aspect might be true in some circumstances, it can
increasingly hamper the teamwork that employees suffer when they are not getting enough sleep
(Sorquivst et al. 2015). Teamwork gets affected when individuals are irritated, clumsy or gets
agitated and annoyed at each other resulting in conflict and hence ineffective team output.
Therefore, it can be seen that improper sleep also interfere with the behaviors and attitudes than
an individual display for effective teamwork.
It is indeed important to understand brain imaging methods so that one can reveal why
sleep deprivation can result in the irrational emotional responses. The amygdala is an important
area that is present deep inside the brain and is responsible for acting as the emotional control
centre. It had been found that when sleep deprived participants were shown to have emotionally
negative images, the activity levels in the amygdale were found to be quite higher for about 60%

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higher than the levels in those individuals who were under rest. Many of the researchers also
wanted to look at how different areas of the brain had been found to be connected in the different
participants to understand the effect of sleep on each parts (Blunden and Rigney, 2015). They
found that sleep deprivation also disrupts the connection between the medical prefrontal cortex
and that of the amygdala. This connection is important as the medial prefrontal amygdale itself
regulates the amaygdala functioning (Baker et al. 2014). Moreover, sleep deprivation also make
the amygdale to overreact to different types of negative stimuli as this region becomes
disconnected from the brain areas, which are normally successful in moderating its responses.
Therefore, one can easily understand about how sleep loss can affect the emotional regulation of
individuals through improper signaling of the brain and working of the amygdale region.
It is also important to understand how sleep deprivation can affect the hippocampus of
the brain in individuals and thereby make the individuals forgetful and careless in their
behaviors. Hippocampus can be described as the region that is significant for the storing of the
new memories. When people are seen to be deprived of sleep for failing to sleep one night, their
capability for memorizing new information can drop significantly (De Beer et al. 2014). This is
found to be because of the association of the hippocampus with that of the sleep deprivation.
Studies have found when sleep deprived participants were given the scope to memorize a set of
pictures, sleep deprived participants showed less activation in the hippocampus as compared to
people who had adequate sleep. This deficit in the hippocampus region can be attributed mainly
because of the sleep deprivation that had resulted in the ability of the organ in writing the new
information (Biondollio and Pilleniar 2015). Another study had showed that the hippocampus is
also important to sleep for moving to entirely new information so that it can be stored in other

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important areas of the brain. Therefore, in this case, lack of sleep might cause the storage
capacity of the hippocampus in filling up and preventing new information from being stored.
A leading research journal had associated sleep disorders with that of suicidal
tendencies. They are of the opinion that both sleep deprivation and suicidal behaviors are
connected with troubled psyche or even that poor sleep made people more prone to thoughts of
suicide. It has been researched that lack of sleep might also affect the procedures by which brain
works and thereby lead to poor judgment and lesser ability for controlling the impulses (Morgan
et al. 2017). Hence, the sleep deprived individuals become more prone to develop suicidal
behaviors under certain strenuous situations. Another hypothesis is also provided by other
studies. Sleep disorders and suicidal thoughts are found to be linked with imbalance of the
chemical serotonin and play a key role in the regulation of the mood (Hansel et al. 2015). Again,
insomnia is also associated with suicidal tendencies. It has been linked with individuals having
suicidal thoughts when they are depressed and find it hard to think their ways out of their
problems.
Hiller et al. (2015) had described the problems faced by individuals due to low sleep in
two important categories. One of them is called the internalized problems and the other one is
the externalized problems. The internalized problems are often seen to complain of the
headaches as well as stomach-aches and sickness. They are often seen to be worried as well as
unhappy, downhearted and even tearful. The individuals are seen to be nervous or clingy in any
new situations, losing confidence easily as well as having many fears and being easily scared.
Again, on the other hand, externalized problems that remain associated with sleep disorders are
seen to include many important symptoms. These are symptoms like losing of the temper,
misbehavior with others like fighting pr bullying other people, lying as well as cheating and

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stealing from home, school as well as elsewhere. Another set of problems that are also seen to
include are the hyperactivity as well as the inattention problems. These problems are seen to
include restlessness, being overactive, constantly in the notion of fidgeting, inability for staying
still as well as squirming (Krizan et al. 2016). Such individuals are also seen to be easily
distracted and are found to be impulsive and have short attention span. Therefore, people with
sleep issues can be seen to suffer from the mentioned issues and have poor quality lives.
Studies conducted in the organization have shown that when sleep runs short in the
workforce, organizations do not only lose the positive as well as the pro-social behaviors and
attitudes of the employees. Poor sleep is truly responsible for making undesirable behaviors
more likely. The studies also show how sleep loss had been intricately associated with rise in the
unethical behaviors (Friedrich et al. 2018). Researchers are of the opinion that sleep deprivation
as well as perceptions of poor sleep superiority would be strongly connected with the greater
incidence of cheating in the workplace. They have also stated that these elevated levels of
unprincipled behaviors are intricately connected to the lack of sleep resulting from the
diminished self-control. They have even found that it did not take a large amount of lost sleep for
triggering the spike in the cheating behaviors. The gap stuck between the individuals who
cheated and those individuals who did not cheat was only about 22 minutes of lost sleep.
Even poor sleep was found to be intricately associated with deviant behavior in the
workplace. With the deviant behavior, it mainly means the behavior that is seen to range from
avoiding work and leaving early from the organization as well as arriving late to other ill
behaviors like rudeness, theft, vandalism and even different types of violence. However, the
researchers had clearly stated that the difference between the sleep amounts of the individuals
showing deviant behaviors and the individuals showing non-deviant behaviors are strikingly

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narrow. It has been found that persons who slept lesser than about six hours nightly were more
vulnerable to become deviant and desired unethical behaviors the next day as compared to
individuals who slept more than six hours. Studies are of the opinion that this form of the
behaviors can be attributed to sleep determined loss of self-control as linked to the cognitive
functions of the pre-frontal complex (Serra et al. 2014).
Another important study had found two important factors, which can intricately
combine and interact with the sleep and can have significant implications for the workplace.
These two attributes are the stress and job satisfaction. Stress and sleep were seen to have a
complex as well as bi-directional relationship and it has been found that both the attributes have
significant power of influencing the others. Stress and worry are seen to interfere with sleep.
Individuals who are found to be short on sleep are found to more vulnerable to stress and less
management of various issues that occur. In the present-day working-cultures, stress as well as
anxiety is hugely prevalent in the workplace today (Dolisnki, 2018). More than half of the
employees are of the opinion that stress had interfered with the quality of the work along with
the job performance as well as the relationship they develop with that of the coworkers. It has
been found that strain interferes with the quality of work as well as their job presentation and
even their relationship with the coworkers. Stress at work result in affecting the presentation
largely and ensures emotional well-being. It also helps in increasing the voluntary turnovers
resulting in the reduction of the job satisfaction.
Significant amount of sleep is seen to be closely associated with that of the increasing the
job satisfaction while also reducing the job-related stress. Sleep deprived workers are seen to
perceive their jobs as more demanding and therefore they had felt less control over their work.
They are even seen to develop the feeling that their workplaces were less socially supportive.

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These employees are seen to have higher stress levels that in turn remain correlated with worse
sleep at two-year follow up. However, studies are indeed of the opinion that it is a vicious cycle
but one can break it by helping people tending to their sleep.
Sleep deprivation can affect the motivation of individuals as well which in turn affect
the behaviors and attitudes of human being. One of the most obvious side effects of lack of sleep
us that individuals feel tired. The feeling of tiredness can impede the feeling of motivation
development among the individuals. Sleepiness can make the individuals feel less cared about
the goals that need to be met and achieved. It also seems to the individuals with poor sleep that
their goals are much harder to address. This lack of motivation due to the feeling of fatigued and
tired is one of the negative effects of sleep deprivation (Ballesio et al. 2017). Another way by
which sleep deprivation can affect the motivation of the employees is ineffective memory
management. Sleep deprivation not only affect the physical health but also the mental health.
Lack of sleep makes individuals tired and dazed due to sleep and it makes it hard for the
individuals in retaining and learning new information. When individuals are greatly affected by
the lack of sleep, they will have difficulty in remembering things that would affect both
professionals and personal lives and make it difficult for the individuals to maintain a balance.
These would affect motivation as well.
Sleep is also seen to affect the decision-making capabilities in order to achieve goals
and objectives. It is often found that making the right decisions can help in achieving the goal o
failing in the achievement. When individuals are deprived of sleep, that part of the brain that
becomes responsible for decision-making might become fogged. Individuals are seen to make
trouble-making decisions, which do not provide them, benefit in the end. Therefore, studies are
of the opinion that as decision, making behavior is a huge part in reaching the goals and making

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them to stay motivated and therefore, proper sleep is important to ensure productivity and quality
work output in the professional areas.
It is important to understand the factors that can alter the sleep patterns and make
individuals more prone to develop improper attitudes and behaviors. One of the most important
factors is the untimely consumption of caffeine in the evenings that result in disrupted sleep. It is
important for individuals to be well aware of the caffeine content in beverages like that in the
soda, coffee and the tea. Caffeine contains chemicals, which act as stimulating agents and this
affect the sleeping condition of the disorders. Smoking is another factor that is intricately
associated with affecting the sleep (Nacar et al. 2015). Nicotine is a stimulant that is indeed
found to make it hard for the smokers to fall asleep. Smokers are also seen to have disputed
sleep patterns successfully. Smoking is found to be intricately associated with circadian rhythm
that leads to poor sleep patterns. Another factor that also affects sleep resulting in improper
behaviors and attitudes are pain, anxiety as well as other medical conditions. A wide range of
medical as well as the psychological conditions can affect the structure as well as the distribution
of the sleep pattern of sleep (Morgan et al. 2017). Different conditions are seen to affect which
include chronic pain from arthritis as well as the discomfort caused due to gastroesophageal
reflux disease, pre-menstrual syndrome as well as many others.
From the above discussion, it can be stated that sleep is entirely critical towards life as
breath. It is seen to affect every aspects of their life that not only involves productivity but is also
seen to involve health and mood of the individuals. Many of the ambitious individuals are seen
to feel that sleep hours can interfere and affect their productive hours but it has been proved
entirely wrong. People are found to be more productive when we get sufficient amount of sleep.
When individuals have sufficient amount of sleep, their production tends to increase as they are

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seen to portray all important positive behaviors and attitudes required for leading successful
lives. Lack of proper sleep is associated with loss of energy while working smarter and more
efficiently. Different people are found to feel the consequences of insufficient sleep that affect
both the behavior as well as attitudes. People who lack sleep also suffer from various issues like
that of irritability, exhaustion and easily distracted. They are also seen to make unsound
decisions. Different behaviors like deviant behaviors resulting in anger, frustration, conflicts and
many others are also seen to result due to lack of sleep. Their behaviors and attitudes are seen to
be impacted by sleeplessness and it can directly affect learning, alertness, memory,
concentration, judgment, problems solving as well as reasoning. Their productivity is not met at
their organization and also affects their job satisfaction and results in development of stress.
People are seen to remain tired and fatigues and do not show a pro-active nature in their behavior
and it also affects their socializing nature. They display a demotivated attitude and this is seen to
affect the teamwork as well. Lack of sleep is also is seen to impact behavior by increasing
emotional reactivity. Different other types of other behaviors that also need to be developed is
called self-perception. Therefore, researchers have found out the relationship between sleep and
the general attitudes and behaviors of adults and hence try to develop recommendations that
healthcare professionals might follow to help individuals with poor sleep.

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