Assessment of Sleep Disturbance as a Biomarker of Disease Activity in a Military Population With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a public health problem due to both its chronic nature and the low response rate to conventional therapies. Sleep disorders are the first cause of complaint in patients with PTSD due to night awakenings, difficulty to fall asleep and nightmares. According to a part of the scientific community, replicative traumatic nightmares represent PTSD's basis mechanism. Traumatic nightmares generate disabling symptoms such as anxiety reactions, while maintaining the symptoms by depriving the individual of good quality sleep. Traumatic nightmares may thus be a sign of PTSD seriousness and chronicity, although their physiological basis remain poorly known. In the military population, which is highly exposed to psychological traumatism, PTSD prevalence is very high and is associated with severe intensity patterns, a very high frequency of replicative nightmares and a low response to conventional therapies.