The relationship between caretaking experiences in childhood and sleep disturbances in adulthood

Studies on the relationship between childhood experiences with parents and sleep disturbances in adulthood are relatively few in number. Excluding studies on posttraumatic stress disorder, available studies on this relationship in adult participants is scant. In this study, we examined three caretaking variables (i.e., the number of different caretakers in childhood, whether caretakers were the biological parents or not, and the perceived quality of caretaking) and their relationship to self-reported sleep quality over the past month. Contrary to our expectations, only one of the childhood caretaking variables demonstrated a relationship with quality of sleep in adulthood-the perceived quality of caretaking. Lower ratings of parental caretaking quality were associated with poorer overall sleep quality. We discuss the potential implications of this finding.