Fear of Sleep in the Acute Aftermath of Trauma Predicts Future Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Moderating Role of...

Research suggests fear of sleep (FoS) may be an important consequence of trauma that increases risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially among patients experiencing ongoing threat after their trauma has ended. Community violence exposure may reinforce perceptions of threat, compounding the pathogenic effect of FoS after trauma. The current study investigated whether FoS increases within the acute aftermath of trauma, and if such increases in FoS predict future PTSD severity. Further, we tested whether community violence exposure moderates the prospective relationship between FoS and PTSD. We recruited patients from an urban Level I trauma center (N = 88; M_age = 39.53 ± SD 14.31, 67.0% male, 67.0% Black). Patients reported FoS within one week of trauma (T1) and again one month later (T2), and PTSD symptoms two months later (T3). We operationalized community violence exposure as the frequency of hearing gunshots in the 90 days prior to trauma. FoS significantly increased from T1 (M = 8.80) to T2 (M = 11.98), p = 0.015, g = 0.28. Change in FoS significantly predicted PTSD symptoms at T3, and this effect was most pronounced among patients who frequently heard gunshots in their community (β = 0.61, SE = 0.35, p = 0.005). Exploratory analyses in a subsample of patients revealed preliminary associations between skin conductance reactivity and sleep fears at T1, tentatively suggesting heightened sympathetic activation as a corollary of fear of sleep. This study provides novel evidence that FoS increases in response to acute trauma exposure and, in turn, predicts future PTSD severity. Moreover, patients exposed to community violence may be especially vulnerable to these effects, perhaps due in part to continued threats to safety. Acute trauma patients who develop sleep fears may be vulnerable to PTSD, particularly those returning to neighborhoods marked by high levels of community violence.