Study: Lack Of Sleep And Making Financial Decisions Are Not A Good Mix

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new study suggests it would be wise put away the checkbook if you have been burning the candle at both ends lately.

According to the Journal of Neuroscience you should not make financial decisions, especially important ones, if you have not had enough sleep. According to the report, risky decisions based on too much optimism occur when you have not slept enough.

Researchers took a look at 29 people with an average age of 22 and they had them perform a series of risky economic decision making tasks.

One night they got a lot of sleep, the other night they were sleep deprived.  According to the report, those who were sleep deprived had an increased sensitivity to the positive financial rewards. They were so optimistic they thought they would do extremely well, but they also had a decrease awareness of the potential negative consequences.

Reported by Dr. Brian McDonough, KYW Newsradio