Sleepy And Tired Teens Have Higher Chances Of Committing More Crimes As Adults, Study Says

A person's sleeping habits might indicate how likely he or she could commit crimes as an adult. A new research claims teenagers who feel sleepy and tired in the day have higher chances of committing a felony.

Research from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of York showed teens who reported being sleepy in the afternoon tend to be antisocial and exhibit behaviors such as cheating, fighting, lying, and stealing. These teens were found to be 4.5 times more likely to commit violent crime at the age of 29 years old.

Richard Perry University Professor Adrian Raine and colleague Peter Venables published their findings in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. They examined some 101 15-year-old boys from England.

Seventeen percent of the sample population were found to have committed crimes. Some were convicted of violent incidents when they reached adulthood. Some of the information were gathered 39 years ago by Raine, AJC.com reported.

Sleep Review reported Raine also tested some of the boys during a lab session that ran from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. He then asked the participants to rate their degree of sleepiness on a seven-point scale.

A rate of one pertained to unusually alert and seven was the sleepiest state. Their sweat rate and brain wave activity were also measured as these indicated the level of attention a person pays to the tone played over the headphones.

Data regarding anti-social behavior were also measured by the reports from the sample population and experts also gathered statements from the teachers who worked with the teens for at least four years.  A computerized search at the Central Criminal Records Office in London was made by Raine in order to see which of the 101 sample populations had a criminal record at age 29. Minor violations were excluded.

Raine advised the solution to prevent teens from committing crimes later in life is to get more sleep. "Daytime drowsiness is associated with poor attention," the expert said. "Take poor attention as a proxy for poor brain function. If you've got poor brain functioning, you're more likely to be criminal."

The researchers also clarified boys who are sleepy do not always amount to committing crimes in the future. They said, however, teens who regularly experience drowsiness coupled with anti-social behavior would have the higher possibility of committing crimes.