One of the main complaints in torture survivors is sleep disturbance with nightmares, too little sleep and daytime fatigue. Seven subjects, who had been exposed to torture from 6 months to seven years previously, were examined by polysomnography. All had abnormal sleep patterns compared with normal age- and sex-matched controls. The subjects woke frequently from REM sleep, had reduced REM sleep duration, absent Stage 4 sleep, short total sleep time and low sleep efficiency. This study revealed that previously healthy young persons subjected to extreme stress may develop an abnormal sleep pattern.
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Åström et al. (1989) studied this question.
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