Abstract
Sleep loss and sleep disruption influence a wide range of cognitive capabilities. This is particularly evident in the
domain of risky decision making. There is growing evidence that the brain’s ability to evaluate risk and reward
is strongly impacted by sleep loss. Sleep deprived individuals, compared to well-rested controls, show
increased activity in reward-related brain areas, accompanied with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex
which hinders appropriate risk assessment and executive control. This creates a bias towards immediate
gratification and underestimation of potentially harmful consequences, ultimately leading to impulsive and
maladaptive choices being made by sleep deprived individuals. In this talk, I will discuss recent findings on how
and when sleep loss promotes risky decision making and its implications for people with mental disorders, such
as depression.