Trauma, Sleep and Mental Health Problems in Low-Income Young Adults.

Rachel A Fusco,Yan Yuan,Christina E Newhill,Hyunji Lee

doi:10.3390/ijerph18031145

Abstract

Low-income young adults are more likely to have exposure to trauma, which increases risk for mental health problems. Although adequate sleep promotes good health, people with histories of trauma are more likely to have sleep problems. The current study explored whether poor sleep mediated the relationship between trauma exposure and mental health. A sample of 143 low-income 18–24-year-old young adults completed depression, anxiety, and trauma exposure measures and wore sleep monitors for four nights. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine both direct and indirect effects of variables. Results showed that higher trauma exposure was associated with depression and anxiety. Mean sleep hours per night was fewer than six, far below recommended guidelines for optimal health and functioning. Fewer sleep hours partially mediated the relationship between both trauma exposure and depression and anxiety, and the direct effect from trauma remained significant after adjusting for the partial mediation from sleep.

Highlights

A growing body of evidence shows that sleep plays a critical role in overall health.Poor sleep has been associated with a range of problems such as obesity, violence and aggression, and impaired cognitive functioning [1,2,3]
We explored whether or not poor sleep plays a mediating role in mental health problems and, a pattern evolves in which mental health problems contribute to poor sleep, and poor sleep exacerbates mental health problems
Our results showed that higher levels of trauma exposure were related to depression and anxiety

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of evidence shows that sleep plays a critical role in overall health.Poor sleep has been associated with a range of problems such as obesity, violence and aggression, and impaired cognitive functioning [1,2,3]. People in young adulthood (defined as those aged 18–25 years) may be especially likely to get insufficient sleep and suffer from subsequent negative outcomes [4]. There are both biological and behavioral reasons that young adults are more sleep deprived. Subpopulations of young adults such as those in poverty may be at greater risk for sleep problems [6]. They may be more at risk for trauma exposure and subsequent mental health problems [7]. This suggests a complex relationship between trauma exposure, mental health, life challenges, and sleep problems in young adults

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