Lack of sleep causes gamblers to make rash decisions, researchers have found, as it affects a "gambling casino" in the brain.
Volunteers who had been deprived of sleep were given a computer game to gamble on and researchers saw that they took more risks than a normal control group, Channel 4 reports.
Scans showed that the area of the brain that anticipates reward became more active whenever gamers made high-stakes gambles. The part of the brain that evaluates the emotional importance of events was less active in the event of a loss for those who had not slept.
Volunteers had to choose between two 'good' and 'bad' stacks of cards, with some cards offering cash winnings and others generating losses. Both the winnings and losses from the 'bad' cards were higher than the good cards.
All in all, a player would at least break even when choosing cards from the 'good' deck, but would be very likely to incur an overall loss if picking more from the 'bad' deck.
Although people generally start out by trying their luck at both decks equally, most people stick with the 'good' deck after around 40 or 50 attempts.
Nevertheless, those who had not had any sleep tended to keep taking higher risks on the 'bad' deck, even though they were losing money.
Lack of sleep causes gamblers to make rash decisions, researchers have found, as it affects a "gambling casino" in the brain.