Don't Sleep. Go to jail. No really it's possible!

False confessions are a pervasive part of our criminal justice system.  The article "False Confessions" by Elizabeth F. Loftus states that at least 4% of people in the U.S. who receive the death sentence are actually innocent.  Interrogators use effective psychological coercive interrogation strategies to increase the likelihood of false confessions in innocent candidates.  Sleep deprivation is known to impair the cognitive skills required for resistance to such a coercive environment.  It is noted that potentially as much as 17% of interrogations occur during usual sleep hours.  This percentage is disturbingly high in my opinion.  Perhaps interrogation of of sleep-deprived and unrested suspects is not that rare and in fact could be alarmingly common.

In this article, research was conducted on already available laboratory techniques for examining false confession processes.  Participants completed computer-based tasks, writing exercises, and questionnaires.  This process occurred over three laboratory sessions.  Beginning with session 2, study participants either slept for 8 hours in a laboratory bedroom or stayed awake throughout the night.  Then participants were asked once, then twice if they at first refused, to sign a falsely accusatory statement about their actions ruining their data (pressing the escape key during the duration of the trials).  It was found that 8 of the total 44 rested participants, or 18%, signed the statement.  22 of the 44 sleep-deprived participants (50%) did the same -- half!

This information really floored me.  Sleep-deprivation has an even more dramatic adverse effect than I would think on cognitive discriminating ability.  I know that I have been sleep-deprived for about the last week as I try to return to a more regular academic schedule, previously disrupted by periodic extracurricular events that I've attended.  I am still getting over being sick as well... and they say "sleep is the best medicine."  I have a more typical schedule this week so I should be able to get back into a healthy sleep routine.  It seems that in fact I must do so...so that I do not falsely take the blame for something I didn't do or didn't do correctly.  Interestingly, this issue actually came up recently for a group assignment where I was told I answered a portion of questions incorrectly when it turns out that I did in fact answer them correctly.  The reviewer simply had slightly different numbers from rounding.  I initially assumed that truly I was incorrect, because I was aware of my sleep-deprivation and its probable effect on my cognitive abilities.  I should have checked my process and stuck with it instead of giving my 'false confession.'


Sleep deprivation's effects on the outcomes of criminal trials have here and in a myriad of other sources been discussed.  It is evident then that suspects are unfairly taken advantage of, using coercive questioning measures, while they are not rested.  I call for more research into this area of the criminal justice process as it relates to the sleep health of involved suspects.  A tired defendant is not an accurate defendant, and a lack of accuracy in any criminal trial is not helpful to the potential victims involved or to the accused.