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Early Life Trauma Has Lifelong Consequences for Sleep And Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Sleep quality varies widely across individuals, especially during normal aging, with impaired sleep contributing to deficits in cognition and emotional regulation. Sleep can also be impacted by a variety of adverse events, including childhood adversity. Here we examined how early life adverse events impacted later life sleep structure and physiology using an animal model to test the relationship between early life adversity and sleep quality across the life span. Rat pups were exposed to an Adversity-Scarcity model from postnatal day 8-12, where insufficient bedding for nest building induces maternal maltreatment of pups. Polysomnography and sleep physiology were assessed in weaning, early adult and older adults. Early life adversity induced age-dependent disruptions in sleep and behavior, including lifelong spindle decreases and later life NREM sleep fragmentation. Given the importance of sleep in cognitive and emotional functions, these results highlight an important factor driving variation in sleep, cognition and emotion throughout the lifespan that suggest age-appropriate and trauma informed treatment of sleep problems.

SUBMITTER: Lewin M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6853921 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Early Life Trauma Has Lifelong Consequences for Sleep And Behavior.

Lewin Monica M Lopachin Jenna J Delorme James J Opendak Maya M Sullivan Regina M RM Wilson Donald A DA

Scientific reports 20191113 1

Sleep quality varies widely across individuals, especially during normal aging, with impaired sleep contributing to deficits in cognition and emotional regulation. Sleep can also be impacted by a variety of adverse events, including childhood adversity. Here we examined how early life adverse events impacted later life sleep structure and physiology using an animal model to test the relationship between early life adversity and sleep quality across the life span. Rat pups were exposed to an Adve ...[more]

PMID: 31723235

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Project description:BackgroundTelomere length, a biomarker of cell division and cellular aging, has been associated with multiple chronic disease endpoints. Experienced trauma over the life course may contribute to telomere shortening via mechanisms of stress embodiment. However, it is unclear how patterns of co-occurring trauma during sensitive periods (e.g., early life) throughout the life course may influence telomere shortening. We examine the relationship between co-occurring early life trauma on adult telomere length and the extent to which adulthood trauma, socioeconomic position, and health and lifestyle factors may mediate this relationship.MethodsWe use data from a sample of participants in the Sister Study (N = 740, analytic sample: n = 602), a prospective cohort of U.S. self-identified females aged 35-74 years at enrollment (2003-2009) for whom leukocyte telomere length was measured in baseline blood samples. Participants reported their experience of 20 different types of trauma, from which we identified patterns of co-occurring early life trauma (before age 18) using latent class analysis. We estimated the direct and indirect effects of early life trauma on leukocyte telomere length using structural equation modeling, allowing for mediating adult pathways.ResultsApproximately 47 % of participants reported early life trauma. High early life trauma was associated with shorter telomere length compared to low early life trauma (β = -0.11; 95 % CI: -0.22, -0.004) after adjusting for age and childhood socioeconomic position. The inverse association between early life trauma and adult leukocyte telomere length was largely attributable to the direct effect of early life trauma on telomere length (β = -0.12; 95 %CI: -0.23, -0.01). Mediating indirect pathways via adult trauma, socioeconomic position, and health metrics did not substantively contribute the overall association.ConclusionsThese findings highlight the role of patterns of co-occurring early life trauma on shortened telomere length independent of adult pathways.

Project description:Background and objectivesLife History Theory (LHT) describes trade-offs that organisms make with regard to three investment pathways: growth, maintenance and reproduction. In light of the reparative functions of sleep, we examine sleep behaviors and corresponding attitudes as proximate manifestations of an individual's underlying relative prioritization of short-term reproduction versus long-term maintenance.MethodologyWe collected survey data from 568 participants across two online studies having different participant pools. We use a mixture of segmented and hierarchical regression models, structural equation modeling and machine learning to infer relationships between sleep duration/quality, attitudes about sleep and biodemographic/psychometric measures of life history strategy (LHS).ResultsAn age-mediated U- or V-shaped relationship appears when LHS is plotted against habitual sleep duration, with the fastest strategies occupying the sections of the curve with the highest mortality risk: < 6.5 hr (short sleep) and > 8.5 hr (long sleep). LH 'fastness' is associated with increased sleepiness and worse overall sleep quality: delayed sleep onset latency, more wakefulness after sleep onset, higher sleep-wake instability and greater sleep duration variability. Hedonic valuations of sleep may mediate the effects of LHS on certain sleep parameters.Conclusions and implicationsThe costs of deprioritizing maintenance can be parameterized in the domain of sleep, where 'life history fastness' corresponds with sleep patterns associated with greater senescence and mortality. Individual differences in sleep having significant health implications can thus be understood as components of lifelong trajectories likely stemming from calibration to developmental circumstances. Relatedly, hedonic valuations of sleep may constitute useful avenues for non-pharmacological management of chronic sleep disorders.Lay Summary: Sleep is essential because it allows the body to repair and maintain itself. But time spent sleeping is time that cannot be spent doing other things. People differ in how much they prioritize immediate rewards, including sociosexual opportunities, versus long-term goals. In this research, we show that individual differences in sleep behaviors, and attitudes toward sleep, correspond with psychological and behavioral differences reflecting such differing priorities. Orientation toward sleep can thus be understood as part of the overall lifetime strategies that people pursue.

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Early Life Trauma Has Lifelong Consequences for Sleep And Behavior.

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Early Life Trauma Has Lifelong Consequences for Sleep And Behavior.

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