You know it's important to get a good night's sleep before a big exam, but a new study suggests it would be wise to catch up on your rest before a big date, too. Researchers at the University of Berkeley found that acute sleep deprivation makes it hard to recognize faces as happy or angry, though the same effect wasn't found when looking at sad faces.
"Every emotion depends on a different brain network," explains study coauthor Els van der Helm, "and sleep deprivation affects some more than others." While this study focused on the three emotions whose recognition is thought to be most commonly affected by loss of sleep, the findings have led the researchers to explore other emotions, as well.
Such research is critical, notes van der Helm, for people in notoriously sleep-deprived occupations, like doctors, military personnel, or new parents. Such people often rely heavily on emotional processing skills to make the right calls. New moms need especially take note: The study found the effect more pronounced in women than in men.
