Lack of sleep can increase paranoid thinking, says scientist

People suffering from insomnia are more likely to fear that others are trying to harm them, a psychologist has told the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Dr Daniel Freeman from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London said that people who are having difficulties getting to sleep show increased rates of paranoid thinking. A survey of 8,580 adults revealed those who had found it difficult to sleep within the past month were three times more likely to fear that people were deliberately acting to harm them or their interests than those who had slept well.