📺 Stream EntrepreneurTV for Free 📺

Study Finds the Less You Sleep the Less People Like You A new study reveals people don't want to socialize with a sleep-deprived person.

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Shutterstock

It turns out, the concept of beauty sleep is not just clever marketing from cosmetics makers. According to a recent study published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal, not getting enough sleep makes you less attractive, less healthy and damages your social appeal.

The study discovered that sleep deprivation and looking tired not only have a direct relationship to health and attractiveness, but people are less likely to interact with someone who looks tired and unhealthy.

Related: Sleep In and Make Millions: Why You Don't Need to Wake Up at 5 A.M.

Conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, researchers photographed 25 male and female students without makeup after they had slept for eight hours for two consecutive nights. The researchers took another set of photographs of the students after they restricted their sleep to four hours a night for two consecutive nights. Researchers presented each student's photographs to a group of 122 strangers who rated each image in terms of attractiveness, health, sleepiness and trustworthiness.

Of course, most people gave lower scores to the people in the sleep-deprived images, labeling them as less attractive and less healthy. Raters admitted to being less inclined to socialize with sleep-deprived individuals, and the study goes so far as to suggest that people might avoid contact with a sleep-deprived person in order to reduce health risks.

Related: How CEOs Optimize Their Sleep Schedule

According to the study, "Having an unhealthy-looking face, whether due to sleep deprivation or otherwise, might thus activate disease-avoidance mechanisms in others and render one's surroundings less socially inclined."

However, while the study found that people were found to be less attractive when lacking sleep, it discovered no change in other's perception of how trustworthy a person appears.

Rose Leadem is a freelance writer for Entrepreneur.com. 

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Side Hustle

These Coworkers-Turned-Friends Started a Side Hustle on Amazon — Now It's a 'Full Hustle' Earning Over $20 Million a Year: 'Jump in With Both Feet'

Achal Patel and Russell Gong met at a large consulting firm and "bonded over a shared vision to create a mission-led company."

Business News

These Are the 10 Most Profitable Cities for Airbnb Hosts, According to a New Report

Here's where Airbnb property owners and hosts are making the most money.

Side Hustle

How to Turn Your Hobby Into a Successful Business

A hobby, interest or charity project can turn into a money-making business if you know the right steps to take.

Productivity

Want to Be More Productive? Here's How Google Executives Structure Their Schedules

These five tactics from inside Google will help you focus and protect your time.

Starting a Business

This Couple Turned Their Startup Into a $150 Million Food Delivery Company. Here's What They Did Early On to Make It Happen.

Selling only online to your customers has many perks. But the founders of Little Spoon want you to know four things if you want to see accelerated growth.