Thursday July 24, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Criminal defense lawyers be aware:  You may challenge eyewitnesses who testify against your client for the reliability of their testimony if they chronically suffer sleep deprivation, for instance, sleeping for less than five hours per night, a new study suggests.

The study published in Psychological Science shows that sleep-deprived people not getting enough sleep were more likely to have memories of false details, compared to those who got a full night's sleep, after all of them were presented photographs of a crime scene and then a false text description about the photos.

Early research has demonstrated that failing to have a full eight hour sleep interferes with cognitive function, but the current study led by psychological scientist Steven J. Frenda of the University of California, Irvine and colleagues indicates that sleep deprivation can lead to false memories. 

The researchers have found earlier that getting only five hours of sleep per night or less was correlated with false memories. (David Liu)