Sleepless nights can persist for decades.

• Position: Child Abuse - Brief article

Being abused as a child can have physical and emotional impacts decades later, maintains a study from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Even in old age, adults who reported they had been abused or neglected as children were found to have trouble getting a good night's sleep.

"A negative early attachment continues to exert an influence on our health decades later through an accumulation of stressful interpersonal experiences across our lives," points out psychologist Cecilia Poon. "The impact of abuse stays in the system. Emotional trauma may limit a person's ability to fend for themselves and successfully navigate the social world. Our study shows once again how the emotional and biological really interact."

There is a growing body of research, both...