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- Sleep loss makes it harder to think, and more likely to believe conspiracy theories.
- Not sleeping well is linked to believing made-up stories, studies show.
- Feeling depressed is a big reason why sleep problems and conspiracy beliefs are connected.
- Even one night without enough sleep makes your emotions less steady and your pattern spotting worse.
- Believing conspiracy theories can hurt public health and how democracy works.
Why Are Conspiracy Theories So Likable?
To know why conspiracy theories are so appealing, we need to think about how people’s minds work. Our brains want to find meaning, see patterns, and feel sure about things. This comes from when humans needed to survive in a tricky world. But these same things can make us believe stories that are not true, especially if those stories sound simple, give us a sense of control, or give us someone to blame.
Seeing Patterns and Wanting Control
People naturally see patterns. This helps us get around, but it can also make us see patterns that are not really there. This is like thinking random things are secretly connected. For example, someone might think a group secretly planned a natural disaster.
When we are stressed or feel helpless, we really want to feel in control. Conspiracy theories can make us feel better because they give us a bad guy and a reason for things. It feels easier to believe “They did this on purpose” than to accept that bad things can just happen.
Thinking Styles: Gut Feeling vs. Thinking It Through
Thinking works in different ways. Some people think with their gut feeling—making quick decisions based on instinct. Others think things through carefully using logic. Studies show that people who go with their gut are more likely to believe wrong information and conspiracy ideas. This is especially true if they don’t check things out or think hard about it.
People who think they are very special or important also tend to believe conspiracy theories more. They often feel different from others or misunderstood. This fits well with ideas that go against the mainstream or against authority. Add in feeling like you belong to a group (like a political group or online friends), and conspiracy theories become beliefs that are supported by others, not just your own thoughts.
How Sleep Changes the Brain’s Filters
When you don’t sleep enough, you just feel tired. But it also changes how your brain works in ways that mess with your judgment, feelings, and good decisions.
Thinking Skills Get Messed Up
Thinking skills like focus, stopping yourself from doing things you shouldn’t, remembering things in the moment, and being able to think flexibly are controlled by the front part of your brain. Not sleeping well makes this part of your brain not work as well. This makes it harder to judge new information carefully. When this happens, you are more likely to believe things that don’t make sense or messages that play on your emotions.
Research shows that thinking clearly and judging risks gets worse even when you miss just a little sleep. When sleep is not good, especially for a long time, our brain’s “filters” get weak. This lets questionable or harmful ideas get through without being checked.
Feelings Get Too Strong and We See Threats Everywhere
Not sleeping enough makes the emotional part of your brain, called the amygdala, more active. At the same time, it makes it harder for the emotional part to talk to the thinking part of your brain. This throws things off balance. It makes people react more strongly to emotions and less able to stop feeling fear or distrust that is not based on reason.
When it comes to conspiracy theories, this mix is bad news. You have stronger emotions, worse judgment, and a tendency to see events in a suspicious way.
New Research: Sleep and Conspiracy Beliefs
More and more research is starting to see how not sleeping enough is related to believing in conspiracy theories.
The Notre Dame Fire Study
In a key study in 2024, researchers asked 540 people to read different versions of a news story about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in 2019. One story was just the facts. The other story talked about conspiracies (suggesting it was set on purpose).
The researchers found that people who did not sleep well were much more likely to believe the conspiracy story. This was true even though there was no proof for the false claims.
More Findings
To make sure it wasn’t just by chance, the same researchers did another study with 575 people. Again, the results showed that not sleeping well meant people were more likely to believe conspiracy theories.
These findings show that sleep is not just a small thing. It really plays a part in whether people are likely to believe things.
Feeling Down Is the Missing Piece
Researchers also wanted to know why not sleeping enough might make people believe in conspiracies. The answer might be in how people are feeling emotionally—especially if they are depressed.
Depression Plays a Part
The second study looked at different feelings like anger, worry, and paranoia. But they found that depression was most important. People who slept worse said they felt more symptoms of depression. And feeling depressed was linked to believing conspiracy theories.
Depression can change how you think by making you see things negatively, feel more helpless, and see threats where they might not be. When you are feeling depressed, your mind is ready to accept stories that match your fears or give you someone to blame—which is what conspiracy stories often do.
Stress, Mental Health, and Believing Wrong Information
Sleep is important, but it’s also connected to other mental health things that change how we see the world.
Constant Stress and Thinking Problems
Stress makes sleep worse and also weakens thinking skills. High stress hormones can hurt your memory, mess up your sleep, and make it harder to solve problems using reason. When you are tired and stressed, you might rely more on gut feelings. This makes you more likely to believe wrong information.
Worry and Not Sleeping: A Bad Loop
Worry not only makes you less able to handle problems, but it also often causes long-term sleep problems. These two things together create a cycle where not sleeping enough makes you more worried, and being worried makes you sleep worse. This keeps making you more likely to believe things without checking them.
In this situation, you are more likely to believe stories that are emotional or cause strong feelings—like conspiracy stories. Your brain might pay more attention to things that seem threatening and think big claims are real or urgent.
Is It a Cause or Just Related?
Sleep and conspiracy beliefs are strongly linked. But it’s not clear if one causes the other.
Which Way Does It Go?
There is good proof that not sleeping enough can directly lead to emotional problems and thinking problems. These things make it harder to resist wrong information. But, believing in wrong information could also mess with your emotions, causing stress or sleep problems. So it could go both ways.
Studies show that even one night of less sleep can change your mood and how sure you are of things. In one study, people became much more paranoid and easily annoyed after just 24 hours without sleep.
Why It’s Important: Real-World Dangers
Believing conspiracy theories is not just an idea. It has real effects, from public health problems to violence.
Losing Trust
Conspiracy theories often grow when people don’t trust groups and systems. When people are more likely to believe these stories, they can start to distrust science, news, medicine, and how democracy works.
This helps explain why more people are unsure about vaccines, deny climate change, and become politically extreme. All of these have been connected to believing conspiracy ideas.
Danger to Public Safety
The effect is not just on one person. Wrong actions based on false beliefs can put others in danger. This could be from not following public health rules, spreading lies online, or even violence because of “secret group” conspiracies.
New Ways to Stop Wrong Information
Typical ways to deal with wrong information, like fact-checking, might miss something important: mental health and sleep.
Stopping Problems Before They Start
If better sleep helps thinking and emotional strength, then programs that help people sleep well and reduce stress could protect people from wrong information. Schools, workplaces, and even social media sites could add wellness tips to help people learn about online information.
People who are well-rested might stop, think, and question strange claims. This is exactly what is needed to fight wrong information.
But Sleep Isn’t Everything
Some people sleep badly and never believe in conspiracies. Others believe crazy theories even when they sleep fine.
Many Things Cause Belief
Believing conspiracy theories comes from many things: your mind, society, and what information you see. Things like what media you watch, your education, groups that think alike, and even bad things that happened when you were a child all play a part in how you understand information.
Still, sleep is a big thing we can change. Making sleep better might not stop someone completely from believing conspiracies. But it could make it less likely by making their emotions and thinking stronger.
What Research Needs to Do Next
To figure out cause and effect and understand more, future research should use different methods.
Studies Over Time and Experiments
Experiments that limit sleep and then show people wrong information could show if sleep problems cause belief. Studies that last for years would show if long-term sleep problems lead to more distrust and stronger beliefs.
Brain Scans and Behavior Tools
Brain scans and other tools could find changes in the brain when people process beliefs in different sleep states. Knowing the brain reasons behind believing wrong information would help create ways to help people at risk.
What You Can Do: Sleep Better, Think Better
Everyone, no matter if they believe in conspiracies, can benefit from good sleep and balanced emotions. You can start to improve your mind today by making your sleep habits better
- Sleep at the same times each day—even on weekends.
- Stop using screens an hour or more before bed.
- Make your bedroom dark, cool, and quiet.
- Don’t have drinks with caffeine or alcohol close to bedtime.
- Try relaxing things like deep breathing or tensing and relaxing muscles.
Combine these habits with thinking tools: question big claims, check different sources, and know when your emotions are being played with. A well-rested mind is slower and thinks more clearly—the opposite of what conspiracy stories need to spread.
Make Sleep a Priority—Protect Your Mind
Conspiracy thinking is not just silly or dumb—it can be what happens when you are tired, stressed, and emotionally off balance. New research suggests that not sleeping enough weakens our defenses. This opens the door for wrong information to take hold. By trying to sleep better and be mentally well, we make our own minds stronger and help make sure society has good information.
Citations
- Dootson, P., Morrison, C. M., & Gauld, C. (2024). Poor sleep quality is associated with more conspiracy beliefs: Evidence from two UK studies. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053251320598
- Freeman, D., Waite, F., Emsley, R., Kingdon, D., Dunn, G., & Fowler, D. (2022). The effects of poor sleep on delusions and paranoia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 870128. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.870128
- Ben Simon, E., Rossi, A., Harvey, A. G., & Walker, M. P. (2020). Overanxious and underslept. Sleep, 43(2), zsz282. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsz282
