The Impact of Lifetime Trauma on Sleep Reactivity in Acute Trauma Patients: The Role of Victimization Traumas

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

5-19-2025

Publication Title

Sleep

Abstract

Introduction: Sleep reactivity is a vulnerability to sleep distur bance after stress that increases risk for insomnia and myriad negative health outcomes. Previous research shows life stress can heighten sensitivity of the sleep system, exacerbating sleep reac tivity. This study investigated the relationship between lifetime trauma exposure and sleep reactivity among patients hospital ized for acute trauma. Methods: We recruited 88 patients hospitalized in Detroit, MI within one week following traumatic injury (Mage = 39.53 ± 14.31, 67.0% male, 67.0% Black). Patients reported their lifetime exposure to traumatic events using the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5). We summed all positive trauma exposures to compute a “trauma load” variable, with greater scores indi cating cumulative lifetime trauma experiences. Additionally, we computed three empirically derived clusters of trauma types previously shown to differentially correlate with mental health: Accidental/injury traumas (e.g. transportation accident), victimization traumas (e.g. physical assault), and predominant death threat traumas (containing mostly death-related traumas, e.g. assault with a weapon). Participants reported their sleep reactivity using the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test (FIRST) and insomnia using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Results: Reactive sleepers (FIRST ≥ 20) reported significantly more traumatic life events (M number of events = 7.64 ± SD 3.72) than nonreactive sleepers (M number of events = 5.91 ± SD 4.12), p =.041. High sleep reactivity was uniquely associated with greater lifetime exposure to victimization trauma types (F(1, 84,) = 4.22, p =.043, ηp2 =.048), adjusting for sex and insomnia (ISI ≥ 11). Specifically, 59.0% of patients with a his tory of physical assault had high sleep reactivity, whereas 41.0% had low sleep reactivity (χ2 = 4.94, p =.026). Similarly, 69.0% of patients with a history of sexual assault had high sleep reactivity, whereas only 31.0% had low sleep reactivity (χ2 = 5.50, p =.019). Conclusion: Acute trauma patients with high sleep reactivity report greater lifetime exposure to traumatic events, particularly physical and sexual assault. These results highlight the poten tial link between victimization traumas and increased sensitivity of the sleep system, independent of insomnia status, which may contribute to the development of insomnia and other negative health outcomes.

Volume

48

First Page

A228

Last Page

A229

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