Early childhood adversity associations with nightmare severity and sleep spindles.
Sleep Medicine April 1, 2019 T. Nielsen, M. Carr, C. Picard-Deland et al.
People who frequently have nightmares report more childhood adversity—including both traumatic and nontraumatic forms—than healthy controls, with effects visible as early as ages 0–6. Nontraumatic adversity in early childhood is linked to nightmares independently of trauma. Separation adversity at ages 0–6 correlates with lower slow sleep spindle density, an anomaly tied to psychopathology and early nightmare onset. Group differences in adversity are only partly explained by current anxiety or depression and relate more to nightmare distress than to nightmare frequency. The findings suggest that early adversity contributes to nightmares through mechanisms that may overlap with those in posttraumatic stress disorder.