Personal and Situational Predictors of Sleep Problems in Sexual Assault Survivors

Background and Objective Sleep disturbances are common in survivors of sexual violence and may significantly hinder recovery. Identifying predictors of insomnia can provide insights into trauma response and clinical intervention. This study examined the prevalence of sleep disorders during the initial response phase and analyzed the influence of personal and situational trauma factors on insomnia severity.Methods This study included 365 women who survived rape and were registered at Sunflower Centers between 2015 and 2022, with a mean age of 27.64 years. Data were collected on participants’ demographic characteristics, incident-related variables, insomnia severity, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analyses of variance, and multiple regression analyses were performed.Results The mean insomnia score among the participants was 15.51, approximately 50% experiencing clinically significant symptoms. The severity of insomnia was significantly associated with age, subjective health status, past psychiatric visits, physical violence, and loss of consciousness. Regarding the relative influence on insomnia severity, trauma symptoms emerged as the strongest predictor (β=0.568, p<0.001), followed by subjective health status reported as “very poor” (β=0.249, p=0.010), whereas survivors who experienced partial loss of consciousness during the incident reported lower insomnia scores than those who remained fully conscious (β=-0.101, p<0.030).Conclusions Insomnia severity after sexual violence was more strongly associated with subjective factors—such as trauma response and perceived health—than by objective characteristics of the assault. These findings highlight importance of early assessment of psychological responses in post-assault care.