Sleep in Social Cognition and Judgment

To successfully navigate the social world, individuals must be able to employ appropriate social cognitive processes to guide behaviors. This includes the ability to perceive and comprehend the behaviors and social dispositions of oneself and that of others, and place these perceptions into the context of one’s own interpersonal norms before a behavior can be enacted. Due to its complexity, social functioning is mediated by a number of factors, including sleep quantity and quality. Our society is currently facing a sleep loss epidemic, and unfortunately such frequent and cumulative sleep loss can have drastic consequences on an individual’s social functioning. Sleep loss impairs decision-making, self-regulation, and emotional processing - all of which impact social cognitive processes. This chapter provides a concise overview of the available literature assessing sleep loss in the context of social cognition and judgment. Sleep loss has been shown to unmask biases, prejudices, and ethical behavior. In addition, sleep loss significantly impacts social decision-making and prosocial behaviors such as trust, bargaining, altruism, and general team dynamics. Research efforts in these areas should utilize naturalistic testing paradigms and sleep schedules to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the intricate relationship between sleep and social cognition.