New Delhi, Feb. 17 -- We all know that a bad night's sleep can leave us feeling groggy, irritable and emotionally off-balance but what if disrupted sleep is not just a one-off issue instead, a lasting consequence of childhood experiences? A new study published in Development and Psychopathology suggested that young adults who suffered maltreatment in childhood may struggle with sleep due to impaired emotion regulation processes.

The research, which analyzed nearly 2,000 Chinese youths, found that different types of childhood trauma-physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse-were linked to unique emotional coping strategies, which in turn affected sleep quality. The findings offer fresh insight into why some people have persistent s...