Ph.D. student studies impact of sleep deprivation
Colleen Sbeglia, Ph.D. student in psychological science, is examining how sleep deprivation alters the behavior of young men in the Orange County criminal justice system.
“We’re investigating the sleep, mental health, substance use and problem behavior of these guys over a two-week period,” she explains. “We are interested in how sleep affects criminal behavior, substance use and mental health. Does it matter how much you slept or how you feel you slept?”
Her “Losing Sleep” study, which was awarded a $49,735 grant from the American Psychology-Law Society, seeks to understand the importance of sleep in the lives of at-risk young men, ages 18 to 25.
Research has shown that the way people feel about how they slept is a stronger predictor of behavior than the actual number of hours slept, Sbeglia says. “So, we can actually test the difference between the two.”
The participants will include young men in the Orange County Young Adult Court program and other first-time felony offenders. They will complete daily diaries and wear a device that measures their amount of sleep.
“While scientists have separately examined the correlates of criminal behavior, sleep quality, and mental health, they are rarely studied as interconnected phenomena that mutually influence each over time” Sbeglia notes. “The Losing Sleep study will address these gaps in the psychology and law literature, and in a novel population: the sample is comprised of transitional age youth, who are in a developmental stage that is increasingly recognized as distinct from adolescence and traditional adulthood; it is youth charged with a felony for the first time, a target population for recidivism reduction; and the sample is comprised primarily of youth of color, which corresponds to the overrepresentation of minorities within the justice system.”
The research aims to find out whether indicators of sleep quality predict next-day criminal behavior or mental health issues or vice versa with near real-time data collection.
“Our hope is that if we can improve the sleep of these young men, then we can improve the outcomes that we’re interested in — lower recidivism, less substance use, better mental health, potentially even things like more stable employment or enrollment in school and better relationships,” Sbeglia says.
Sbeglia, who has a bachelor’s degree in German from Cal State Long Beach and a master’s degree in psychological science from UCI. She expects to complete her doctorate in 2024 or 2025.
Before entering the Ph.D.program in 2019, she worked for the German government in the Office of the Parliamentarian. “I realized that I want to effect change by doing research to provide empirical data to inform policy,” Sbeglia says.
She chose UCI’s psychological science program, she adds, “because the professors here do very applied research that not only improves individuals but also the community and the environment.”
— Mimi Ko Cruz