Browsing by Author "Räty, Sini"

Aims of the study. Previous studies have found that traumatic childhood experiences increase the risk of sleep problems in adulthood, but research in adolescence is scarce. Sleep problems negatively affect adolescents’ well-being, cognitive abilities and academic performance. The aim of this study was to examine how traumatic childhood experiences are associated with sleep in adolescence. Methods. This study was a part of SleepHelsinki! cohort study in the University of Helsinki. 305 adolescents aged 15-18 completed The Traumatic Experience Checklist (TEC) and sleep measurements including The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and actigraphy measurements. Traumatic childhood experiences were categorized into emotional traumas, bodily traumas and sexual traumas. Connections between sleep variables and traumatic childhood experiences were examined and ordinal logistic regression was used for the statistical analyses that included the impact of the experience and the age of onset. Results and conclusions. Traumatic childhood experiences had a statistically significant association with sleep problems, but the connection was not discovered regarding objectively measured sleep timing and duration. Similar associations were discovered for boys and girls. Sleep problems were worse the more traumatic experiences adolescent had experienced. This study did not find this association to be affected by age of onset or impact of the traumatic event. Results of this study indicate that traumatic childhood experiences are a risk factor for sleep problems in adolescence.