LAUSR

Insufficient sleep alters emotional processing, leading to impaired recognition and expression of emotions, greater endorsements of punishing behaviors, and withdrawal of compassionate helping. Using data from two national surveys, we investigated whether sleep quality and sleep duration were associated with willingness to donate to local charities, religious institutions, and political parties. We conducted secondary analyses of two independent samples: Wave 5 and Wave 6 of the Baylor Religion Survey (BRS-5 and BRS-6). The BRS-5 included 1,501 participants (2017) and the BRS-6 included 1,248 participants (2021). Both surveys used random address-based sample methodologies to approximate population-representative samples, with stratification weighting targets matching national demographics for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and region. Each survey inquired about donations to local charities, religious institutions, and political parties. In addition, the BRS-5 included questions about sleep duration and sleep quality (restedness, sleep onset latency); BRS-6 only included questions about sleep quality. In the BRS-5, people were more likely to donate to a local charity and a religious institution if they had better sleep durations (charity: p = .004, OR = 1.39; institution: p = .05, OR: 1.45) and better sleep quality (charity: p = .015, OR=1.18; institution: p = .003, OR: 1.38). Some of these outcomes remained significant after controlling for income, age, gender, and race/ethnicity (e.g., institution donations and sleep quality: p = .026, OR = 1.30; sleep duration: p = .05, OR = 1.48). Similar outcomes emerged in the BRS-6, with better sleep quality being associated with more local charity donations (p < .001, OR=1.33), even after adjusting for income and demographic factors (p = .029, OR=1.19). Sleep measures were not significantly associated with donations to political parties after adjusting for demographic factors. Better sleep was associated with a greater likelihood to donate locally. There is likely a bidirectional relationship between sleep outcomes and prosocial behaviors. National Science Foundation (1920730 and 1943323). BRS-5 and BRS-6 were supported by the John Templeton Foundation.