Not only can lack of sleep hurt memory and learning, but it can also affect your ability to make good decisions when the stakes are high.

Sleep deprivation raises a person's expectation of gains when making risky decisions, according to researchers from Duke University. Conversely, a sleep-deprived person tends to make light of losses following those risky decisions.

The Duke University research team studied the effects of sleep deprivation on gambling, because serious losses can add up quickly. For their study, the researchers assessed a group of healthy individuals as they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they gambled.

The fMRI measured the study participants' blood flow in the brain. Blood flow response is related to neural activity. Images from the fMRI showed that an area of the brain involved with the anticipation of reward became more active when the players made high-risk gambling choices while sleep deprived.

Researchers found that the number of high-risk decisions did not increase when the participants were sleep deprived. However, their expectations of being rewarded for making a high-risk gamble became elevated.

By contrast, the research team found that there was a markedly relaxed response to the gambling losses sustained by the sleep-deprived players in a part of the brain called the insula, which is involved with evaluating the emotional significance of an event or situation.

The Duke University researchers believe their findings reinforce previous studies that have shown that sleep-deprived players tend to choose cards from higher-risk decks and show less concern for negative consequences when gambling.

These findings add to the growing list of adverse consequences associated with sleep deprivation and support the importance of adequate sleep for overall physical and emotional well-being. In addition, being able to make competent decisions when faced with risky situations is important to succeeding in life.

Generally, the amount of sleep a person needs varies by age and by the individual. To maintain health and optimum performance, health experts recommend that adults get between seven and eight hours of shut-eye each night.

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