poor sleep conspiracy

[damon]

https://www.popsci.com/health/poor-sleep-conspiracy-theory/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Poor sleep can make you susceptible to a wide range of physical and mental health issues, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and anxiety. But new research indicates it may also increase the chances of yet another unwanted outcome: embracing conspiracy theories.

A team from the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology recently conducted two experiments on a total of over 1,000 volunteers. The results, published on March 12 in the Journal of Health Psychology, suggest adding bad sleep quality on top of existing issues like depression can make people more susceptible to patently untrue conspiracies. The odds for adopting such beliefs may especially increase if tired people are exposed to conspiratorial content from outside sources as opposed to coming to similarly false conclusions on their own.

For their first study, researchers asked 540 participants to complete a standardized sleep quality assessment before reading one of two articles about the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris. While some volunteers received a verified rundown of the devastating accident, others reviewed a story that falsely stated the blaze involved a cover-up conspiracy. After surveying the participants, researchers noted those who previously cited worse sleep quality entertained the Notre Dame Cathedral conspiracy more often than their well-rested counterparts.

The next phase expanded on the team’s initial work through reviewing another 575 people’s psychological profiles and beliefs. After analyzing the data, researchers argue that there is often a direct link between a conspiracy theory mindset and poor sleep or insomnia. In many cases, depression emerged as the major underlying psychological mechanism behind conspiratorial thinking.

“Sleep is crucial for mental health and cognitive functioning,” Daniel Jolley, the study’s research lead and a University of Nottingham assistant professor of social psychology, said in a statement.

“Poor sleep has been shown to increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and paranoia—factors that also contribute to conspiracy beliefs,” he added.

Buying into conspiracies doesn’t just result in a newfound affinity for tin foil hats—subscribing to these beliefs can have much wider societal effects. Distrust of data-backed vaccine efficacy lowers a society’s overall resilience against infectious diseases like measles, COVID-19, and tuberculosis. Misinformation surrounding climate change has for decades hampered ongoing efforts to combat its risks to humanity and our planet. Meanwhile, the embrace of stolen election conspiracies and fears about secret, nonexistent international cabals has given way to multiple deadly and tragic outcomes.

[KSM]

Whenever I experience sleep depravation I start to doubt the legitimacy of the moon landing. Slept great last night and I know the moon landing is exactly as it seems on the surface.

[sean92008]

Whenever I experience sleep depravation I start to doubt the legitimacy of the moon landing. Slept great last night and I know the moon landing is exactly as it seems on the surface.

Maybe the sleep deprivation thing is real. The loudest people at the oddest hours in my neighborhood are liberals.

[KSM]

Maybe the sleep deprivation thing is real. The loudest people at the oddest hours in my neighborhood are liberals.

Begs the question, "how do they sleep at night?"

[sean92008]

Begs the question, "how do they sleep at night?"

Gotta be drugs. It's not necessarily sleep, it's staying up. 😁😁😁

For a while now, I have been having some breathing issues. They thought it was sleep apnea until they hooked me up on a monitor. I didn't snore, I would just start gasping. They even thought it might be panic attacks.  A lot of times, doctors don't look at everything, they only look at the one symptom as an isolated thing. It's when you have it kicked upstairs, where they profit from the insurance coverage, that a specialist goes "oh yeah, you've got xxx, no wonder you're having that symptom."

Well... It's gotten worse, with a vengeance. Now, instead of going to a doctor and getting some machine and crap, I just turn on the wellness monitor on my phone. It is now saying I'm starting to snore. I don't like new developments...

[Up All Night]