Sleep well, look smart
Want to seem more intelligent? Then have a long, restful night in your bed, Scots scientists say
WHEN you are so tired your eyelids are heavy and you can’t raise a smile, you certainly don’t feel at your best.
Now another downside to losing out on a good night’s sleep has been revealed – it makes you appear less intelligent.
Research by Scots scientists has found that getting more sleep can help individuals appear cleverer by influencing their ‘neutral expression’.
The St Andrews University study is publ i shed i n the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Sleep has long been regarded as the ‘third pillar’ of good health, along with exercise and maintaining a balanced diet.
Now experts believe sleep can impact on how others see us.
Lead author Sean Talamas, a post-doctoral researcher in the School of Psychology and Neurosciences’ Perception Laboratory at St Andrews, said: ‘Attractive people are often perceived as more intelligent, but we wanted to investigate how individuals can change their perceived intelligence, regardless of their attractiveness. The solution seems to lie in subtle differences in a resting facial expression that are related to sleep – namely, eyelid droopiness and subtle frowning.’
Using special face-processing software, the researchers measured the degree of eyelid openness and mouth curvature of 190 faces, both adults and children, who were photographed with a ‘neutral expression’.
More than 200 evaluators were then asked to rate the attractiveness and intelligence of the faces. The results show that those faces with a subtle frown and droopy eyes were perceived as less intelligent.
Dr Talamas said: ‘People over-generalise in judging those with droopy eyelids and a frown as being tired and having a low mood, both of which have a well-documented detrimental effect on cognitive performance. It should be no surprise that many of us find people who look less alert and who have a lower mood as less intelligent looking.’
In collaboration with researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, photographs were also taken of the same partici- pants after a full night’s sleep and after a night of poor sleep. When the same individuals had droopier eyelids and a subtle frown, it resulted in a significant decrease in their perceived intelligence.
David Perrett, who runs the St Andrews perception laboratory, said: ‘Recent scientific advances show how subtle expressions affect judgments, but our work is new in demonstrating the impact of apparent tiredness on social judgments. Sleep is not just important for performance, it also affects how others see us.’
Dr Talamas said: ‘The message? In an interview with an employer or in the front row of a classroom, being cautious of your resting facial expression and getting more sleep may help you look more intelligent. Someone who looks disinterested, unengaged or tired may be just as intelligent, but less aware of the impact of their resting expression.’
The NHS recommends eight hours’ sleep a night for adults. But a 2013 survey by the National Sleep Foundation found 18 per cent of Britons get fewer than six hours on work days and 12 per cent on days off.