“Sleep on it. You’ll feel different in the morning.”

Ever heard this advice? Do you heed it?

Harvard Business Review recently published an article titled “The Long-Term Effects of Short-Term Emotions.” The author, a Duke University professor of behavioral economics, developed a study to test the long-range impact of emotional decision-making.

So, they “annoyed” some people by making them watch a frustrating scene from a movie. They showed another group clips intended to make them laugh or feel happy.

But the TV viewing was only the set up to the study. Duly influenced by the emotions brought on by their respective shows, both groups then participated in a game that tests for reasonable money-related decision making. Here’s the first part of the results:

Those who watched annoying programming rejected far more money-making deals in the game than their happier counterparts.  Then came part two. Both groups were given ample time to relax, get away from the emotions stirred by the TV show they had watched; then they played the game again.

The results may surprise you. The players who were annoyed during the first game again rejected far more money-making deals than the happier group. The conclusion?

The second time through the game, the players were basing their decisions more on previous decisions than upon either current facts or emotions. In other words, one bad decision was built upon a prior bad decision, which was influenced by the emotions of the moment.

Could this happen to you and me? Absolutely.

For this reason, I will be forever indebted to a former boss who gave me some sage—and simple—advice.

I was a 20-something communications manager at Boeing when I became frustrated and angry about a situation at work. I was prepared to take action on my frustration until my former boss said, “It certainly sounds like you have a reason to be upset. But I always like to wait 24 hours—or at least overnight—before acting, so the emotions I’m feeling don’t make me do something I’ll regret later. You can always take action tomorrow or next week; you can’t always take it back.”

So, I waited. Slept on it. Woke up the next morning able to see the situation more clearly. I still wasn’t happy, but certainly more objective.  I didn’t take action, and I’m glad I waited.

What about you? Ever been carried away by emotion? Have you been led by frustration to say or do things you wish you hadn’t said or done? Of course, I still fail, especially at home where I have the safety and security of being loved even when I blow it.

My hope for all of us is that we’ll employ strategies that will help us make good decisions when under stress or frustrated:  pause to pray, take some deep breaths, count to 10 (or much higher), sleep on it. But don’t react or make decisions or seek confrontation when you’re “fired up.”  Wait until you’re calm and collected. Wait overnight.

As the Harvard Business Review author says:  “If you don’t, you may regret it. Many times over.” And, he says, that regret “—and the consequences of that decision—may last years, a whole career, or even a lifetime.”