Moral dilemma? Sleep on it

Do you have a moral dilemma? Don’t decide in a hurry – instead, sleep on your decision and you’ll have a better answer in the morning. So say researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Oregon and John Hopkins University in America (mindfood.com, January/February 2015).

University researchers maintain that if you have a moral dilemma, a “big decision” then make sure you have a nap first. When people don’t get enough sleep their moral compass decreases and they either find it harder to solve moral dilemmas or their morality declines. The same person can have different moral responses depending on their level of sleep. It’s not just that different people have different responses to moral dilemmas, but the same person can have lapses of morality.

Researchers found a link between sleep and morality. Sleep seems to have an impact on people’s decision-making processes.

People in a laboratory study were randomly assigned a specific amount of sleep, and then woken by the researchers. The control group was assigned to have about seven hours of sleep. The treatment group was assigned to have around 4.5 hours – these were the partially-deprived sleep group. After their period of sleep researchers presented participants with moral dilemma scenarios. Participants were shown ethical violations and asked whether it was a moral issue or not.

Participants who were better rested were more able to identify issues of morality – that is, whether a scenario presented a moral dilemma to them. Sleep-deprived participants scored lower in moral awareness than the control group – they could not identify moral dilemmas.

In a follow-up, new participants were asked to monitor their own sleep. Participants then completed the same measure of moral awareness as the first study.

When individuals were low in sleep, moral awareness declined, and they scored low in moral dilemma problems. When the same individuals had a full night’s sleep – of about seven hours – their morality increased. They scored highly on moral dilemma problems. So often it may not be a simple case of being influenced by other people – it may be just a case of not enough sleep.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog