My career goals are to become a clinical scientist within an academic setting focused on developing a research program aiming to elucidate the role of health behaviors in posttraumatic stress problems and to apply this information to the development of novel and empirically and theoretically-driven prevention programs. Based on these goals, I aim to obtain training in (1) the assessment, treatment, and laboratory methods related to PTSD;(2) the assessment, treatment, and laboratory methods used in sleep deprivation research;and (3) advanced methods for the development, standardization, implementation, and testing of clinical interventions with a focus on prevention programs. The proposed research project aims to experimentally test the role of acute sleep deprivation on reactivity to traumatic event cues among a healthy nonclinical sample of traumatic event exposed adults. Specifically, we propose three main hypotheses: among traumatic event-exposed persons, 24 hour sleep deprivation, relative to a normal night's sleep control condition, will result in greater: (1) baseline anxiety symptoms;(2) anticipatory anxiety (indexed via multi-modal psychophysiological assessment) about the traumatic event-related laboratory-based script-driven imagery procedure;and (3) anxious reactivity (indexed via multi-modal psychophysiological assessment) to the script-driven imagery procedure. A total of 100 traumatic event-exposed persons without a history of PTSD will (1) complete a laboratory-based baseline assessment of reactivity to traumatic event-related cues as indexed by responding to an individualized script-driven imagery procedure, (2) be randomly assigned to either a 24 hour sleep deprivation period or a control condition, and (3) return the following day for a second laboratory-based assessment of reactivity to traumatic event-related cues. Collectively, the current project would help to establish sleep deprivation as critical in the maintenance of posttraumatic stress by uniquely testing this relation via a controlled experimental design. Indeed, while longitudinal research has suggested sleep deprivation may maintain posttraumatic stress, to date, no experimental test has been conducted in this domain. This work is important as traumatic event exposure and problems related to sleep are very high and both physical and psychological problems following trauma are common, yet there remain relatively few efficacious prevention programs in the area. This risk factor-focused project will have important implications for the continued improvement of posttraumatic stress prevention programs that have both clinical and public health significance.
