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 People who are sleep deprived are 4.5 times more likely to sign a
false confession than those who got a full night's rest before
signing, researchers found.
"I think it's important for the legal community and jurors to do
what they can to accurately and reliably assess evidence including
confession evidence," said study author Shari Berkowitz, of
California State University, Dominguez Hills.
She and her colleagues write in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences that a recent investigation suggests about 4
percent of people sentenced to death in the U.S. are innocent. False
confessions are implicated in about 15 to 25 percent of those cases,
the authors note.
Sleep deprivation can be used as an interrogation tactic, and
Berkowitz said it can be used unintentionally when suspects are
questioned during the hours people would normally be asleep.
"While there has been a lot of great research into false
confessions, no one has actually explored if sleep deprivation
increases the risk for false confessions," Berkowitz told Reuters
Health.
For the new study, the researchers recruited 88 Michigan State
University students to complete various computer tasks. While
completing those tasks, the participants were repeatedly warned not
to press the "escape" key on the keyboard, because it would cause
the computer to lose valuable data.
The participants then returned in the evening about seven days later
to answer more questions. Half of the participants were then allowed
to sleep for eight hours, and the others were kept awake through the
night.
In the morning, the participants were given a sheet of paper to sign
that described their activities in the first session and falsely
said they had pressed the escape key.
Half of the sleep-deprived participants signed the false confession,
compared with 18 percent of those who got a full-night of rest.
After those who initially refused to sign the paper were asked to do
so a second time, false confessions increased to about 68 percent of
the sleep-deprived group and about 39 percent of the well-rested
group.
The study team tested the participants' comprehension to make sure
that they knew what they were signing, and when they eliminated two
participants - one rested, one sleep deprived - who failed to show
they had read the text and understood it, the results for the larger
groups did not change.
The researchers also found that people who reported being more tired
- in general - and those who had less control over impulses were
more likely to sign the false confessions.
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Berkowitz cautioned that the study only looked at false confessions,
and it can't say whether sleep-deprived people are more likely to
sign true confessions. Also, the researchers acknowledge that the
stakes involved are different when falsely confessing to pressing
the "escape" key versus falsely admitting to a crime, but the study
team was limited by ethical research standards in the scenarios they
could test.
Dr. Sanjeev Kothare, professor of neurology and the director of
Pediatric Sleep Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York
City, said this is the first time he has seen sleep deprivation
linked to false confessions.
"I think this needs to be studied more systematically and possibly
find a mechanism for why it happens," said Kothare, who wasn't
involved in the new study.
He said there is a possible rationale for the connection since sleep
deprivation is already tied to poor judgment calls.
"I think people should be aware of this and police departments
should be aware of this," he said.
Berkowitz said prosecutors should use more skepticism when they hear
certain evidence before going forward with a case. Defense attorneys
should pay attention to the findings, too.
"I think that defense attorneys have the responsibility to stay on
top of the science that relates to their clients' cases," she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1PArbZq PNAS, online February 8, 2016.
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