Supporting data for “Sleep and Arousal of Survivors of Chronic Childhood Trauma”

To investigate the complex relationships among sleep, arousal, and dissociation in childhood trauma survivors, three studies were conducted using samples of community-dwelling adults in Hong Kong. 

Study 1 examined the differences in subjective sleep quality and sleep-related experiences among individuals exposed to short-term, chronic, and no childhood trauma, and evaluate if the chronicity of trauma altered the relationship between childhood trauma and sleep. Nine-hundred-and-fourteen adults completed an online survey on sleep, trauma-related symptoms, and psychological distress. 

Study 2 extracted the data from Study 1 and examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Dissociative Experiences Measure, Oxford (HKC-DEMO). 

Study 3 examined the mediating role of arousal and the moderating role of dissociation in the relationship between childhood trauma and sleep. Fifty survivors of chronic childhood trauma and their age-and-gender-matched controls who reported no history of childhood trauma completed a week of sleep diary and an overnight portable polysomnography assessment. Heart rate variability and skin conductance level were also assessed at baseline and under distress to evaluate autonomic arousal.