#64 - Trauma and Sleep
The importance of getting a good night’s sleep has been highlighted in the past year (2020-2021).
For example, poor sleep - which we can define in this instance as short sleep and/or a mistiming in your body clock - can decrease one’s immunity to infection. The implication is that poor sleep could increase the chances of being infected by the COVID-19 virus.
But it’s not just COVID-19 that we can be susceptible to if we don’t get enough sleep.
Whilst there were around 1.8 million deaths due to COVID-19 in 2020, there are also around 1.3 million deaths worldwide due to traffic accidents.
Yet on the news this week there was a single traffic accident that caught the world’s attention …
Tiger Woods managed to survive what should have been a fatal car accident.
Unlike COVID-19 - which can result in a protracted disease that may lead to death - car accidents are classified as a single-incident trauma.
For Tiger’s sake (perhaps that should be a new phrase!?), he needs to hope that he got some good healthy sleep the night before his crash.
That’s because, researchers have found that people with who experienced a traumatic event had an increased risk of developing PTSD if they had prior sleep disturbance.
There’s now been enough experimental studies to show that when someone is deprived of sleep, there positive emotions are diminished the next day. So rather than people being ‘moody and irritable’ because they have not had good sleep - it’s more like they cannot easily tap into their positive feelings.
But that’s just one night of sleep.
If your sleep problem is ongoing, you’re at an increased risk of setting yourself up for developing PTSD.
Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event goes on to develop PTSD.
That fact has led researchers to explore that meaningful question - Why?
To further highlight the benefits of good sleep, several years ago we did a study with a group of good sleepers.
We split this group into two.
One group watched an 8-min video that we borrowed from a PTSD researcher in our Department.
4-min of this video depicted a fictional rape - the other 4-min was of a man being bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher in a nightclub.
Even as I write this, I’m experiencing images, thoughts and feelings (both emotional and physical) due to the memory of this video. This is how PTSD researchers study trauma - by using a ‘stimulus’ that can mimic a low-grade version of a traumatic event - so they can learn more, and eventually help prevent people from developing PTSD.
The group of good sleepers who watched 8-min from this fictional French movie (called Irreversible) watched it in the late arvo (‘arvo’ is Australian slang for ‘afternoon) or early evening.
The other group of good sleepers watched a non-traumatic 8-min video (the French version of the animated Pixar movie ‘Ratatouille’).
I guess this movie is traumatic if you don’t like rats … or omelettes
We surveyed both groups’ sleep before and after the evening they watched their respective movie.
This is what we found …
Compared to the Ratatouille group (who continued to sleep well), the Irreversible group took longer to fall asleep on the night they watched the film. But not long enough that we would classify this as ‘sleep-onset insomnia’.
However, they also spent a lot of time awake during the night - enough time to warrant them experiencing ‘sleep-maintenance insomnia’.
But the very next day they returned to good sleep.
Conclusion?
We learned the value of good sleep in this study. That sleep will react to a stressor - but also that good sleep helps people to be resilient.
Many people experiment with their own sleep.
They will stay up late to finish an assignment, work, or use technology for leisure - knowing that they might feel a bit tired the next day - and justifying to themselves that they will cope by having a bit more of a sleep-in or an extra cup of coffee.
Do this enough times, and you’re setting yourself up to reduce your resilience for what may happen the next day.
PTSD is very hard to treat. My PTSD colleague has been testing an excellent treatment for PTSD that works very well. But it takes up to 20 sessions.
Whilst treatment for insomnia usually takes 6 sessions, anyone can take better care of their sleep.
For the next 7 days, know that:
You cannot predict if you will have a stressful event happen
The odds of a significant life event occurring this week are low
But the odds are not 0%
The one thing you can control is not sacrificing your sleep
Almost There …
This week we finalised the line-up for our first ever WINK Sleep Conference.
The theme of this conference is ‘The Next Generation’.
Why?
Because too often people are inviting the ‘big names’ to headline conferences. And too often those talks have been given before.
But there are a bunch of golden nuggets (ie, great studies) that are buried amongst the poster presentations at conferences.
And too often those posters are given by researchers early in their careers.
So we decided to elevate these excellent researchers and their ‘sexy’ studies. Researchers from Mexico, New Zealand, the UK, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, South Korea, Hong Kong - and of course, Australia.
We’ve worked with all of these guys and gals - and seen that they are thinking differently to the norm.
But the main thing is that their research means something in the real world.
They have something to say that an audience can take home - or to their work - and use.
So here’s the promo - and importantly - we have a date.
For now - Save the Date (July 10). Mark it in your diary - even if it’s tentatively.
Because soon, we’re going to release the early bird rate for the conference (or should we call it the Morning Lark Price?).
To further promote The Next Generation, those who are early in their careers, will get in for half the price.
And it also pleases me to say that if you’re a WINK Member for 3 consecutive months - you get a FREE ticket (on top of the rest of the value of being a Member). And today, our inaugural member will receive her FREE ticket to the conference.
Until then - don’t sacrifice your sleep this week!
You Made It This Far … Wanna Learn How to Treat Insomnia from Us?
That’s right. This week we’ve released our first online course:
Brief Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (BBT-I)
Check it out here …
Prof Michael Gradisar