A new study challenges the well-known theory that depriving an individual of sleep during a police interrogation would make it easier to extract a confession. According to this research, this method would actually lead to the opposite effect.
- Depriving someone of sleep does nothing to get them to confess.
- New Study Even Shows Sleep Deprivation Hinders Information Disclosure
“Speak sir!” In our cultures steeped in detective films and series, the image of a police inspector carrying out an interrogation in a freezing room, using all sorts of means of pressure to extract a confession from the accused seated on the other side of the table, probably speaks to many of us.
One of the most well-known pressure points is lack of sleep. However, an experimental study whose results are published in the journal sleeping, suggests that sleep restriction may instead hinder the disclosure of information during criminal interrogations.
The experiment included 120 healthy volunteers from academia who were asked to restrict (or maintain) their sleep for two days. These individuals were then questioned about illegal acts they admitted to committing in the past. Participants who reduced their sleep slept an average of 4.5 hours less, losing about one night’s sleep over two days.
Less memory due to lack of sleep
“Historically, sleep has been used as a tool to compel disclosure or confession, while sleep deprivation remains common among interrogation subjects such as victims or witnesses. However, there was little evidence direct scientific evidence on whether sleep enhances or inhibits the disclosure of intelligence in investigative interviews,” says Zlatan Krizan, professor of psychology at Iowa State University (USA) and lead author of the study.
Preliminary results show that even mildly sleep-restricted participants provided around 7% less information during their first questioning. People with sleep disorders also reported being less motivated to recall information.
“These findings have direct implications for the science and practice of investigative interviewing and contradict long-held assumptions about the role of sleep in human intelligence gathering,” the authors conclude.
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