0929 Association Between Sleep, Childhood Trauma and Psychosis-Like Experiences

Abstract Introduction Symptoms of psychosis occur along a severity continuum in which symptoms present with a range of severity and distress, at times leading to impairments in functioning. Subthreshold, non-clinical positive symptoms of psychosis, or psychosis-like experiences (PLEs) represent one portion of this spectrum. Understanding of the clinical importance of PLEs is growing; however, knowledge remains scant regarding specific risk factors for their expression. Sleep dysregulation is known to exacerbate expression and distress related to PLEs, and childhood exposure to trauma is associated with both occurrences of PLEs and increases in sleep disruption. The present study sought to examine to joint influences of sleep and childhood trauma on presence of PLEs. Methods Undergraduate participants (N = 409) completed self-report questionnaires on presence and distress of PLEs, sleep disturbances, and previous traumatic events. A hierarchical regression model was employed to assess the unique effects of sleep on PLEs. Two separate sets of predictors were entered into the model: 1) psychosocial predictors (including trauma), 2) sleep dysregulation domains. Results In the final model, certain sleep disruptions uniquely predicted PLEs, yet childhood trauma exposure failed to remain significant once sleep was included. Conclusion Results indicate that the dysregulation of sleep following or occurring in parallel with a traumatic experience may somehow impact or intensify the presence of PLEs. If a patient is struggling with distressing PLEs, it may be especially important for clinicians to assess sleep and potentially a prior history of trauma that might also be related. Further, given that disruptions in sleep are associated with low stigma in comparison to other mental or physical disorders, results support the utility of probing sleep dysregulation during initial mental and physical screening. Support (If Any) NA.