0105 The Impact of Lifetime Trauma Exposure Among Law-Enforcement on Actigraphically-Recorded Sleep

Abstract Introduction Law-enforcement officers have a critical mission to ensure public safety and investigate crime, yet frequently report sleep disturbances and mental health challenges. Exposure to trauma common during police duties may contribute to officers’ poor sleep, although research is lacking. Moreover, whether trauma exposure influences objective sleep characteristics and which ones may be especially vulnerable is unclear. To this end, this study examined whether cumulative exposure to traumatic events predicted multiple parameters of sleep health derived from actigraphically-recorded sleep among a sample of police officers during daily duties. Methods A sample of mostly day-shift police officers (n=77, 73% male, average age 42) participated in a two-week study where they reported trauma exposure (Life-Event-Checklist for DSM-5), sleep quality (PSQI), including other indicators of health (e.g., Berlin OSA Questionnaire). Subsequently, officers wore the Fatigue Science Readiband for two weeks, which yielded actigraphic estimates of sleep duration, wake-after-sleep-onset, sleep latency, and sleep quality, also producing biomathematical estimates of alertness. Analyses included correlations and regressions controlling for demographic covariates. Results In general, 36% of officers reported at least one traumatic event, 25% were at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea, and most officers reported significant sleep complaints. Critically, cumulative exposure to trauma was significantly associated with shorter sleep duration, lower sleep quality, and more frequent awakenings (marginally with PSQI reports). For example, officers who reported trauma slept on average around 20 minutes less per night. These effects were robust amid inclusion of critical covariates (age, sex, height, weight, sleep apnea risk, and generalized anxiety). Conclusion The findings provide novel and much needed evidence on the impact of trauma exposure on objectively-recorded sleep among police officers. Trauma exposure was found to impact multiple dimensions of everyday sleep including duration and continuity. Moreover, these effects could not be attributed to demographic differences or currently reported mental distress. The results underscore the presence and impact of trauma on sleep among law-enforcement (even day-shift). They also highlight the need for assessing sleep and fatigue more objectively, as well as sleep and fatigue management intervention efforts. Support (if any) This work was funded by a Federal Bureau of Investigation contract #15F06718C000253 to the first author.