Why Sleep Fools Our Motivation
Hook
“We have a knack for misjudging our own motives.”
Research
University of California, Berkeley — Walker et al. (2018)
The study found that sleep deprivation can impair the brain's ability to read emotional facial expressions, which affects social interactions and decision-making.
View sourceReflection
There was a time when I thought I was driven by pure passion, the kind that keeps you up all night working on a project. But now I realize that more often than not, I was simply running on fumes and adrenaline, my body a hostage to a mind that couldn't sit still.
Reflecting on the past, I remember pushing through endless nights, convinced that sleep was an obstacle to my productivity. I didn't understand that my lack of sleep was actually skewing my perception of motivation, making me believe I was on the right path when I was merely in survival mode.
It took years, but I've learned to listen when my body tells me it's exhausted. Now, when I'm tempted to forgo sleep in the name of productivity, I question whether that drive is genuine or just a misfire of my sleep-deprived brain.
The Insight
We often mistake exhaustion for motivation, misinterpreting our own needs in the haze of sleep deprivation.
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