The Relationship Between Sleep Loss and Decision Making: A Bayesian Perspective

This thesis examines how restricted sleep (<7h/night) affects three components of decision making. Across three studies, it shows sleep restriction reduces reliance on learned knowledge and new evidence, increases sensitivity to reward, and lowers the likelihood of seeking additional information, even when it may improve judgements. Sleep-restricted individuals are also less able to apply what they know to effectively guide behaviour, resulting in more inconsistent decisions. Together, these findings show insufficient sleep alters how people evaluate, update, and act on information. They carry important implications for real-world, professional contexts where accurate, adaptive decisions are needed when faced with limited sleep.