Trauma survivors with disrupted sleep generate less specific and less emotional autobiographical memories

Abstract

Autobiographical memory in trauma-exposed individuals tends to be overgeneral and negatively biased. Although healthy sleep helps consolidate memory traces, and memory for emotional stimuli is better when there is a period of sleep between stimulus exposure and retrieval, and trauma-exposed individuals tend to experience disrupted sleep, no previous study investigates whether specific characteristics of autobiographical memory in these individuals may be accounted for, at least partially, by sleep disruption. Participants were 20 female sexual assault survivors and 20 women with no history of trauma exposure. We collected data from 1 night of polysomnographically monitored sleep and from a next-morning administration of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). In response to positive AMT stimuli, trauma-exposed participants with less REM sleep produced more overgeneral autobiographical memories. In response to both negative and neutral stimuli, trauma-exposed participants and participants with more disrupted sleep (e.g., lower sleep efficiency, more spontaneous arousals) produced less emotional autobiographical memories. In response to negative stimuli, trauma-exposed participants with more spontaneous arousals produced less emotional autobiographical memories. Our design did not include a separate group of non-traumatized depressed patients or a sleep adaptation night. Our text processing software did not allow investigation of whether the affective content of AMT responses was congruent with cue valence. Disrupted sleep, both independently and in interaction with trauma exposure, is associated with less specific and less emotional autobiographical recollections. Sleep-focused behavioral or pharmacological interventions might help alleviate cognitive and affective consequences associated with overgeneral and dispassionate autobiographical memory. • Trauma exposure plus disrupted sleep produces overgeneral autobiographical memory • Trauma exposure plus disrupted sleep produces dispassionate autobiographical memory • Disrupted sleep produces longer autobiographical recollections • Trauma exposure produces shorter autobiographical recollections