Research

Hormonal

Past exposure to violence victimization (adolescent or childhood) exacerbates the negative association between loneliness and sleep quality.

If you have a history of violence or maltreatment, loneliness may hit your sleep harder than it does for others. This is likely due to heightened threat sensitivity. Interventions should address both the social connection and the trauma history, as treating one without the other may be less effective.

GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
The association between loneliness and sleep quality was exacerbated among individuals exposed to violence victimization in adolescence or maltreatment in childhood.
Timothy Matthews et al. · Psychological Medicine · 2017

Why this rating

Robust longitudinal design with twin controls, though the interaction effect is smaller and potentially mediated by psychopathology.

Source

Sleeping with one eye open: loneliness and sleep quality in young adults

Timothy Matthews et al. · Psychological Medicine · 2017

DOI 10.1017/s0033291717000629

cohort · n=2232Cited 168×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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