Sleep deprivation affects the way we see the world.. This conclusion was made by scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles.. The results of their study are published in the journal Nature Communications..

Scientists analyzed the brains of 12 people with epilepsy: patients had to categorize different images as quickly as possible. The more sleepy they were, the harder it was for them to do so.. Electrodes implanted in the brain showed that the speed of its cells fell along with the reaction rate of the patients themselves..

“We watched in fascination how lack of sleep slowed down brain activity.. Normally fast neurons responded slowly, were less efficient, and took longer to switch than usual,” said Dr. Yuval Nir, who led the study..

Scientists also found that in those areas of the brain where the cells worked worse, brain waves also slowed down - that is, parts of it literally " This could cause temporary memory lapses and vision problems..

So, a sleepless person driving a car may not notice a pedestrian walking ahead..

“This lays the foundation for cognitive miscalculations in how we perceive the world around us and how we react to it.. The very process of observing a pedestrian slows down in the overly tired driver's brain.. His brain needs more time to register what he is aware of, ”says one of the authors of the study, professor of neurosurgery Dr. Itzhak Fried.

According to him, lack of sleep has an effect on the brain comparable to the effect of drinking too much alcohol..

“At the same time, there are no legal or medical standards that allow us to identify overly tired drivers on the roads in the same way that we identify drunk drivers,” Fried added..

aspect. net.