STUDY FINDS
NOTTINGHAM, England — Why do some people fall for conspiracy theories while others don’t? Research has typically focused on political beliefs and personality traits, but scientists have uncovered a surprising everyday factor that might be making us more susceptible to conspiracy thinking: not getting enough sleep.
New research from the University of Nottingham, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, reveals that people who sleep poorly are likelier to believe conspiracy theories, especially after seeing conspiracy content. This link exists both for people with ordinary sleep problems and those with clinical insomnia, suggesting our sleep habits might affect how we process information.
Conspiracy theories increasingly affect public health decisions like vaccine uptake and our response to climate change. Figuring out why people believe these theories has become critically important.
Dr. Daniel Jolley and his team ran two studies with over 1,100 participants to see how sleep affects our thinking and mental state.
“We know a lot about the cognitive biases, social influences, and personal traits that explain why people believe in conspiracy theories. However, previous research has typically overlooked how sleep, especially poor-quality sleep, may impact conspiracy beliefs,” Jolley tells StudyFinds. “We also wanted to explore the potential mechanisms behind this connection.”
The team found that when we don’t sleep well, we get irritable and our thinking becomes fuzzy. This mental fog seems to make conspiracy theories—stories about secret plots behind major events—more convincing than they otherwise would be.
In their first experiment with 540 people, the researchers measured sleep quality and then randomly showed participants either a conspiracy theory about the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire or a non-conspiracy explanation. Those who reported poor sleep and read the conspiracy version were much more prone to believing conspiracy theories about the fire compared to well-rested people. This effect was strongest in participants with terrible sleep.
The second study with 575 participants dug into the psychological reasons for this connection. Researchers measured their levels of anxiety, anger, depression, and paranoia. They also assessed their conspiracy mentality (a general tendency toward conspiratorial thinking) and belief in specific conspiracy theories.
Depression consistently linked poor sleep to conspiracy beliefs, while anger and paranoia showed some connection but less consistently.
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