Sleep isn’t just a break from waking life. It’s when the brain repairs, the body recalibrates, and the nervous system restores its sense of internal safety. For children and mothers recovering from trauma, sleep is not a luxury—it is a profound form of medicine.
When sleep is restored, healing can begin.
Children impacted by trauma often struggle to sleep soundly. Their nervous systems remain on high alert, stuck in survival physiology. Sleep, when it does come, is light, broken, or filled with distressing dreams. Mothers—often carrying the dual weight of their own trauma and their child’s—face the same fight: cortisol and adrenaline keep them alert long past nightfall. Their rest is shallow, disrupted, and insufficient for true recovery.
But when rest becomes possible again, something powerful happens.
Sleep calms the amygdala—the brain’s threat detector—and reactivates the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for emotional regulation, decision-making, and empathy. During REM sleep, emotional memories are processed and softened (van der Helm et al., 2011). During deep sleep, the body produces human growth hormone, facilitating tissue repair, immune strength, and physical growth in children (El-Sheikh & Sadeh, 2015). For mothers, the return of consistent, quality sleep reduces inflammation, improves mental clarity, and restores their capacity to connect (Vandekerckhove & Wang, 2018).
Research reinforce this truth:
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Sleep Enhances Emotional Regulation: REM sleep helps reduce emotional reactivity by allowing the brain to reprocess distressing experiences with more safety and distance (van der Helm et al., 2011).
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Resilience to Stress: Sleep quality, paired with emotion regulation strategies, has been shown to buffer against depression and anxiety in times of high stress, an essential tool in trauma recovery (Palmer & Alfano, 2017).
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Mindfulness and Sleep in Children: Stanford research found that mindfulness training improved sleep quality and duration in children from high-stress environments, which in turn supported emotional regulation and reduced cortisol levels (Digitale, 2021).
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Sleep Supports Behavioural Regulation: Regular, high-quality sleep supports children’s ability to manage emotions, engage positively, and learn effectively (Mental Health Center Kids, 2023).
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Adolescents and Emotional Health: Poor sleep in adolescence has been linked to emotional dysregulation, daytime dysfunction, and difficulty with peer relationships, while improvements in sleep lead to better outcomes across all of these domains (Barrett, Coote, & Grummitt, 2025).
Sleep is not a side issue. It is a cornerstone of true recovery.
When sleep is restored:
- A child can better manage their emotions, connect with caregivers, and learn more easily.
- A mother can regulate her own nervous system, think clearly, and respond with greater empathy and patience.
This creates a healing feedback loop.
Calm supports calm. Rest supports rest. Connection becomes possible.
We’re not suggesting that sleep alone heals trauma. But without it, the brain and body cannot do what they are biologically wired to do: recover.
Sleep care must become part of trauma care, for both the child and the caregiver. Because what sleep makes possible is not just recovery. It’s resilience. It’s reconnection. It’s the foundation of healthy development.
Without quality sleep, emotional regulation falters, immune systems weaken, learning is impaired, and long-term mental and physical health are placed at risk.
With it, sustained healing becomes possible.
Sleep is essential infrastructure—for recovery, for growth, and for the capacity to feel safe in the world again.
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References
1. Barrett, E., Coote, T., & Grummitt, L. (2025). Sleep duration in adolescence buffers the impact of childhood trauma on anxiety and depressive symptoms. BMC Public Health, 25, Article 437. Read the study
2. Digitale, E. (2021, July 6). Mindfulness training helps kids sleep better, Stanford Medicine study finds. Stanford Medicine News Center. Read the article
3. El-Sheikh, M., & Sadeh, A. (Eds.). (2015). Sleep and development: Advancing theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 80(1), 1–215. Read the full monograph
4. Mental Health Center Kids. (2023). Research on the impact of sleep on child behavior and emotional regulation. Read the article
5. Palmer, C. A., & Alfano, C. A. (2017). Sleep and emotion regulation: An organizing, integrative review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 31, 6–16. Read the study
6. van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., & Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. Current Biology, 21(23), 2029–2032. Read the study
7. Vandekerckhove, M., & Wang, Y. (2018). Emotion, emotion regulation and sleep: An intimate relationship. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 43, 1–9. Read the study