The way he corrected me made it clear he would never say, “Amen!” to the a.m.

We both tended to arrive early to school and would often pass in the empty halls. So I’d say, “Good morning.” He’d look at me as if I were a backwoods bumpkin in need of schooling and would say, “No.”

Then - in a tone that made it clear he believed nothing good ever happened until noon - he’d add, “Morning.”

Before long, I simply said, “Hello.”

In hindsight, I should’ve skipped any attempt at pleasantries and simply asked: “How much sleep did you get last night?”

More than one of these columns has stressed the need for sufficient sleep and for good reason. A paper published in the May 2017 issue of Nature and Science of Sleep, for example, found that one cause of insufficient sleep, sleep disruption, created hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, weight-related issues, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and colorectal cancer “in otherwise healthy individuals.” Moreover, sleep disruption was linked to an increase in “all-cause mortality” in men.

But a lack of sleep may be better known for compromising next-day performance, especially when you’re behind the wheel.

A 2017 report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, for instance, found that those who slept one to two hours less than usual had a 30 percent increased risk of being involved in a vehicular accident the next day. For those who missed two to three hours of usual sleep, the risk nearly tripled; for those who missed four or more hours, the risk increased tenfold.

In a prior study, the AAA estimated that up to 21 percent of fatal crashes occurred because of sleep deprivation. The Nature and Science of Sleep paper corroborated that, citing a study that determined about 20 percent of the serious injuries from car accidents “can be associated with driver sleepiness.”

But a new study, available since September at the Health Psychology website, shows a lack of sleep can adversely affect your life in one other way. It can lessen the little joys found in it, make the tough parts to it seem even tougher.

At least that’s the phrasing I’ll use to explain what University of British Columbia researchers found when they reviewed data already accrued on nearly 2,000 adult Americans between the ages of 33 and 84 about their sleep habits and their emotions.

In the initial study, the participants kept daily diaries and then were interviewed by phone for eight consecutive days. They were questioned not only about the amount of sleep they got the night before, but also about the problems and stressors, the good things that happened, and the emotional responses to both during the day.

As you may expect, the participants found it harder to be positive when faced with problems and more likely to let stress get the best of them when they had less sleep than usual the night before. But what you may not have expected is that those “little joys” were affected as well.

In an article about their findings for Medical News Today, lead author and UBC health psychologist Nancy Sin, said, “When people experience something positive, such as getting a hug or spending time in nature, they typically feel happier that day. But we found that when a person sleeps less than their usual amount, they don’t have as much of a boost in positive emotions from their positive events.”

Now I’m not a hugger, but I like spending time in nature. And I do know I sometimes feel a profound peace when I pedal beside a creek on a backwoods road.

A supercharged awe when a lengthy clear-day climb leads to a panoramic view. A good-to-be-alive feeling when traversing the D&L trail after a heavy rain and seeing the waterfalls created by the outcroppings of shale.

Yet sometimes these sights don’t make me much feel at all. Is not getting enough sleep the night before the cause?

But enough about me. It’s time to direct the findings of the UBC study toward you.

I’m sure that before today you knew that a lack of sleep could lead to weight gain, a greater risk of many medical maladies, and an increased likelihood of accidents, particularly those of the vehicular variety. But you now need to ask yourself if a lack of sleep could be leading to something not nearly as obvious as crashing a car.

A muting of good feelings. An amplifying of the bad.

A yearning to reply to “Good Morning” with “What’s good about it?”

If so, it may be worth your while for a week or so to record the amount of time you spend sleeping. Remember, a minimum of seven hours each night is generally recommended, but physically active people often find they feel and perform better when they get an hour or two more than that.