Too little sleep can cost you dearly! Interesting findings of scientists

How was the study conducted?

Neurobiologists from the University of California, Irvine decided to check whether even minor and short-term lack of sleep can affect everyday decision-making, including the ability to recognize threats on the Internet. They conducted their research during the time change.

Scientists looked at a cybersecurity campaign conducted in one of the large American institutions employing over 11,000 people. people. Every few months, its IT department sends employees e-mails resembling phishing attempts, i.e. fraud involving impersonating reliable people or institutions, including: in order to extort data. The point is to check how many employees fall for fraud attempts.

After the time change, more clicks on fake links

Scientists compared the results obtained on the Monday before the spring time change and on the first Monday after the clocks changed. It turned out that before the time change, 15.6% of people clicked on links contained in fake news. people, and a week later this percentage increased to 17.8%.

The researchers did not precisely measure the sleep duration of email recipients, so their findings must be treated with some caution. However, they can be considered to indicate a relationship between sleep duration and vigilance in using e-mail.