Abstract Introduction Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common and linked to poorer sleep health and altered stress responses in adulthood. However, pathways connecting early adversity to sleep disruption remain unclear. Sleep reactivity—the propensity for stress to disrupt sleep—may be a key vulnerability factor shaped by both trait predispositions and stress exposure. A few studies have examined associations between ACEs and sleep reactivity, but these have relied on retrospective measures. To our knowledge, no work has tested this link using naturalistic daily measures of sleep reactivity, which may offer improved validity compared to retrospective assessments. To address this gap, we examined whether ACEs predicted higher sleep reactivity using daily data from a national sample of U.S. adults. Methods We analyzed data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS 3) study. We included participants who completed the National Study of Daily Experiences, an eight-day daily diary protocol assessing daily stressors and sleep (N=532). ACEs were assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Sleep reactivity was estimated from multilevel models where daily stress (occurrence and severity) predicted that night’s sleep duration and quality. Random slopes were extracted from models to assess each participant’s sleep reactivity to stress. Associations between ACEs and sleep reactivity were examined using linear regression, covarying for age and gender. Results Childhood trauma was not associated with sleep duration reactivity to stress occurrence (β = 0.02, 95% CI: -0.07-0.10, p = .705), sleep duration reactivity to stress severity (β = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.05-0.14, p = .352), or sleep quality reactivity to stress occurrence (β = 0.01, 95% CI: -0.07-0.10, p = .757). However, greater childhood trauma was associated with greater sleep quality reactivity to stress severity (β = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.04-0.22, p = .007). Conclusion Childhood trauma was associated with greater sleep reactivity. Early adversity may predispose individuals to more sleep disruption in the face of more intense daily stressors, highlighting a potential pathway through which ACEs influence adult sleep health. Support (if any) None
Garcia et al. (Fri,) studied this question.