No Sleep for the Wicked: A Study of Sleep Deprivation as a Form of Torture

Deena N. Sharuk

A considerable amount of scholarship has analyzed the enhanced interrogation techniques through the torture framework. This Article applies the domestic torture analysis to the version of sleep deprivation currently permitted by the Army Field Manual and demonstrates the ongoing weaknesses of domestic law and guidance pertaining to foreign detainees and torture. This Article does so by discussing the permissible use of sleep deprivation presently available to U.S. interrogators of foreign enemy combatants on foreign soil and analyzes it under the domestic federal antitorture framework. It argues that given medical research on the impacts of sleep deprivation, this permissible version of sleep deprivation can profoundly disrupt the personality of its subjects for prolonged periods, rising to the level of mental torture. And while unverified reports have emerged suggesting that the United States continues to interrupt or deprive detainees of sleep at Guantanamo Bay, what is certain is that Army Field Manual 2-22.3’s guidelines still allow for a form of sleep deprivation. This Article argues that despite the lessons of enhanced interrogation, the language of the Army Field Manual’s guidelines pertaining to detainee sleep allows for conduct that rises to the level of torture under U.S. federal law. It is imperative to identify and address the vulnerabilities in the domestic torture framework because so long as threats to national security are ongoing, so too is the risk that decision-makers will exploit these limitations and engage in torture. In exploring the United States’ use of targeted sleep deprivation as a form of torture, this Article considers current guidelines and practices through the lens of a domestic legal framework.