Adverse Childhood Experiences Connection To Sleep

Adverse Childhood Experiences Connection To Sleep

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Hi everyone. Welcome to another podcast. I am Dr. Michael Bennett with you today, as well as my beautiful sweetheart, Cathy.

Hello everyone. Grateful to share a wonderful topic today. It's a very sobering topic, for that matter, as we get into it.

As a part of my studies, I listened to a TED Talk by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris out of California, and it was very intriguing where she discussed the concept of adverse childhood events.
An adverse childhood event can be anything traumatic experienced in childhood—whether that’s a family member committing or attempting suicide, abuse, neglect, or community violence. These experiences are associated with lifelong chronic stress that correlates with conditions like obesity, heart disease, and neurological issues—essentially shortening our lifespans and increasing our risk for chronic health issues.

Listening to her, I was struck by how closely this aligns with what we see in sleep-disordered breathing. Whether in children or adults, when we’re under toxic stress from poor breathing and fragmented sleep, it triggers the same physiological response as trauma does. That overlap is fascinating.

It is. And it's important to ask—how big of a problem is this? Well, the CDC did a big study, and I'm sure most people who’ve taken any public health coursework, like I have, know about it. In that study, they identified ten key adverse childhood experiences—commonly referred to as ACEs.

Right. Most of those ACEs fall into categories like abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction—physical abuse, mental illness in the home, and similar situations. These cause a constant state of stress, which is toxic to the body. And it really breaks your heart when you think about how many children go through this.

Especially because a child isn’t equipped to process trauma. Unlike adults, who might have some tools or mental maturity to deal with stress in healthy ways, children are still growing and forming their emotional frameworks. And that's what makes this data so sobering. You’re going to talk about those numbers, right?

Yes—61% of surveyed adults reported at least one ACE. Let’s remember: we were all children once. So 61% of us are still carrying at least one trauma from childhood. Nearly one in six adults reported experiencing four or more ACEs.

That is just heartbreaking. When you realize how many people are still walking around with unresolved trauma, it really makes you worry for today’s kids.

Exactly. And to put this into perspective: imagine a family of six. Statistically, one of those children will have experienced four or more ACEs. Most of the others will have experienced at least one. It’s more common than we want to believe.

And looking at the CDC’s ACEs website, we saw that preventing ACEs could potentially prevent up to 1.9 million cases of heart disease and 21 million cases of depression in the U.S. That’s incredible.

That’s a huge number. And what makes it worse is that ACEs don’t affect everyone equally. The data shows that women and several racial and ethnic minority groups are at greater risk for experiencing four or more types of ACEs.
This isn’t just a health issue—it’s a systemic and socioeconomic issue. The healthcare costs related to the chronic effects of ACEs add up to hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

Yes. And thinking about our own family—there’s a lot of potential for these effects to quietly show up if we’re not paying attention. That’s why I love the idea of family councils or one-on-one check-ins with kids. Just to see how they’re doing and help them talk through things before it becomes an invisible wound.

Absolutely. And we have to acknowledge that many families today are navigating non-traditional family structures. Single parents are doing heroic work raising kids alone, often without support—and it’s incredibly hard. They're doing their best, but the stress of that situation can filter down to children.

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What Counts as an ACE? Abuse, Neglect, and Dysfunction at Home

Some of the main ACE categories listed include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; neglect; and household dysfunction. That last one—dysfunction—covers a lot more ground than people often realize.

I’ve known families personally who struggled with a parent’s mental illness. It’s heartbreaking. When a caregiver isn’t mentally well enough to feed, clothe, help with homework, or even just be emotionally present, it creates trauma. A child doesn’t know what’s wrong. They just know something’s not right—and that confusion causes long-term emotional harm.

And beyond mental illness, divorce is another big one. Then there’s having an incarcerated relative, or substance abuse in the home—each of those falls under household dysfunction.
I once heard someone say that 90% of people incarcerated in our local area were there due to drug-related circumstances—whether that’s committing a crime to support addiction, being caught using, or selling substances. That’s a staggering percentage.

So many people affected. And these kids grow up—so how does all that trauma affect them once they’re adults?

Well, that’s just it. ACEs ripple into adulthood in a lot of ways. There’s often a repeating cycle. If someone grows up with a parent suffering from substance abuse, they may say, “I’ll never be like that,” and avoid those behaviors. But others, sadly, fall into the same trap. And the cycle continues.

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How Childhood Trauma Affects Sleep and Breathing

So why are we talking about ACEs on a podcast that’s focused on sleep, breathing, and airway health? Because the stress response from trauma affects sleep in profound ways.
Over the years, I’ve had countless patients tell me, “I’ve struggled my whole life with TMJ issues, poor sleep, and jaw pain—and it all started after something traumatic happened when I was a kid.” Many of them—especially women—connected their chronic sleep and pain problems to sexual abuse or emotional trauma.

And I’ve seen you act as much like a counselor as a clinician, especially with those patients. You’re not just treating the physical issues. You’re encouraging people to get help for the emotional wounds too.

That’s right. I remember one patient who was six months into treatment for facial pain, joint problems, and even SI joint pain in her lower back. One day she said to me, “I speak for many others out there who’ve been sexually abused. Please don’t forget us. These experiences cause real stress, and they affect everything.”
She explained how sometimes she’d lie awake all night, unable to sleep, because the memories resurfaced. Her insomnia was relentless.

There’s a very real connection between trauma and what we see as movement disorders in sleep—like bruxism (teeth grinding), constant shifting, or disrupted jaw movement. All that motion leads to worn-down joints and painful mornings. And trauma is often at the root of it.

And stress builds in other ways too. I know so many women—and some men—who clench their jaws when they’re under pressure, or wake up sore from grinding. They carry it in their shoulders too. It’s all connected. And they don’t even realize it’s a subconscious stress response. But their sleep suffers because of it.

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Stress Is Stress—And It All Looks the Same to the Body

And here’s the key thing: the body doesn’t differentiate between types of stress. Whether you’re in danger of being eaten by a bear, reliving childhood abuse, or simply suffocating due to an underdeveloped airway—it’s all the same to your nervous system.

The body responds by activating the sympathetic nervous system. That’s the fight-or-flight side. It floods the bloodstream with cortisol and glucagon to fuel immediate survival. But what does that mean when it happens during sleep? It disrupts healing.

Sleep is supposed to be restorative. If your body is stuck in a chemical loop of stress hormones—whether from trauma or breathing interruptions—it can’t repair itself. The damage accumulates.

And what if both of those things are happening at the same time? If someone has trauma plus a sleep-breathing disorder?

That’s like throwing gasoline on a fire. When you combine an ACE-related trauma response with the physical stress of sleep apnea, it’s a double crisis. The brain can’t get restorative sleep. The body stays inflamed. Healing becomes nearly impossible.

And then people wonder why they have so many chronic conditions. But they’re chasing symptoms instead of addressing the root cause.

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How ACEs Undermine the Foundations of Health

That’s why I often return to what we call the foundational pillars of health: quality sleep, good nutrition, regular exercise, and emotional well-being. They’re interdependent. And when you look at the data from the ACE study, you can see how these areas break down.

Behavioral effects from ACEs include smoking, alcohol abuse, and lack of physical activity.
Then on the physical side, we see severe obesity, chronic lung disease, heart disease, stroke, and so much more.

Right. It’s all connected. You can’t separate it out. If someone isn’t sleeping well because of childhood trauma or airway obstruction, that will sabotage their energy levels. Without energy, exercise is harder. Without exercise, weight gain and inflammation increase. It’s a cycle—and it keeps going unless you break it.

And even if someone eats perfectly and goes to the gym five days a week, if their sleep is broken or shallow due to stress or airway problems, the body still won’t heal properly. The system can’t recover if one pillar is missing. Sleep is that foundational.

And more and more voices in the wellness space are highlighting that. I hear it from health experts now—sleep is not optional. It’s as important as diet and movement. But it’s so often overlooked.

It really is. And what I’ve noticed is that getting the basics right—sleeping, breathing, nutrition, exercise—can sometimes do more than a dozen medications. That’s not to say medication isn’t sometimes needed. It’s just that if we ignore the basics, we’re putting duct tape over a broken pipe.

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A Veteran's Story of Trauma and Healing

That reminds me of a previous guest we had—Josh, the veteran with PTSD. He told us how he would wake up screaming at night, overwhelmed by memories of combat. He was in pain, emotionally and physically.

Yes, I remember. And what’s amazing is that even though he’d gone through therapy and learned great coping mechanisms, he couldn’t apply them—because he was too exhausted. His brain was too inflamed and sleep-deprived to make use of what he’d learned.

Once his sleep disorder was treated, everything changed. He could think clearly again. He started using the tools he’d been taught. And the nightmares? They faded. He got his life back.

That’s why it’s so crucial to screen people with trauma histories for sleep disorders. You can’t heal from the emotional past if you’re constantly being triggered by a tired, reactive brain. Sleep restores the mind. Without it, even the best therapy falls flat.

It’s like having the brakes off in a car with a broken steering wheel. You can’t control where you’re going until you fix the fundamentals.

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The Biology of Stress: Why Sleep Is So Critical

And this isn’t just psychological—it’s physiological. The autonomic nervous system, particularly the sympathetic arm, is how our bodies respond to stress. That includes trauma, bad dreams, and sleep-disordered breathing.

What do those have in common? They all tell the brain, “You’re in danger.” The brain responds with cortisol, glucagon, and adrenaline. These are survival chemicals.

But here’s the issue—if you’re secreting those hormones every night, you’re not recovering. Your immune system is suppressed. Your tissues don’t repair. You don’t process memory correctly. You stay in survival mode.

And then you wake up with foggy brain, emotional reactivity, pain, and zero energy.

Exactly. That’s why this podcast exists—to help people understand that fixing their sleep isn’t just about feeling rested. It’s about reversing chronic stress patterns that may have been present since childhood.

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How Trauma Rewrites Our Genes: The Epigenetic Connection

So I found something from a source called Joining Forces for Children. It breaks down what happens biologically when someone experiences toxic stress.

Yes, let’s talk about that. Most people think genes are set in stone—like if you inherited a gene, that’s it. But epigenetics shows us that genes can be turned on or off depending on what you experience in life.

Right. The quote reads: “Genes are the blueprint that provide instructions for making proteins in our bodies… Epigenetics describes the way that our genes are turned on and off, whether a specific gene is used or not. We now know that what we experience in life changes our epigenetic profile.”

Exactly. Life experience alters gene expression. And that epigenetic profile—those switches—can be passed on to the next generation. If a child is raised in neglect, with poor sleep and chronic stress, that stress profile gets imprinted.

Which means that their children can inherit not just the genes, but the expression of those genes—genes that have been set to survival mode, anxious mode, or inflammatory mode.

Yes. This is why unresolved trauma isn’t just personal—it’s generational. It gets embedded in our biology.

And yet, that’s the empowering part too, right? Because if life can change gene expression, then healing can as well.

Absolutely. That’s why addressing ACEs through therapy, support, and sleep healing can benefit your kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.

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Mitochondria, Mothers, and Generational Health

Here’s another fascinating layer: mitochondrial DNA. It’s passed down through the maternal line—mother to daughter to granddaughter.

So if a grandmother smoked, drank excessively, or experienced severe trauma, that can affect her grandchild’s mitochondrial function?

Yes. Especially because mitochondria power every cell in the body. They’re critical for brain function, energy metabolism, immune response—all of it. If you damage mitochondria, you damage the body’s ability to repair.

And it’s not just from substances. Severe emotional trauma can trigger inflammatory and oxidative stress responses that damage mitochondria as well.

That’s why when we say, “Live healthy not just for yourself, but for your family,” we really mean it. Your choices today ripple across generations.

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So What Can You Do?

First, become aware. Realize that ACEs are incredibly common—61% of people report at least one.

Then talk with your kids. Ask questions. Observe their behavior, sleep, emotions. And don’t just dismiss things like snoring, mouth breathing, or restlessness at night.

Exactly. A child who snores might not just be loud—they might be oxygen-deprived. That matters. Poor sleep could be the hidden cause behind their attention issues, anxiety, or even delayed growth.

There’s a free app called SnoreLab that you can use to get a rough estimate of nighttime breathing quality.

And you can also do your own at-home checks. Look at your child two hours after they fall asleep. Is their mouth open? Are they restless? Do they toss, turn, or sweat excessively? These are signs of potential sleep-disordered breathing.

If in doubt, get a professional evaluation. There are dentists trained in airway evaluation and sleep screening, and they can work alongside pediatricians and therapists.

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Sleep, Behavior, and ADHD: A Wake-Up Call for Parents

One more thing we want to emphasize is this: many children diagnosed with ADHD may actually be suffering from undiagnosed sleep-disordered breathing.

That’s right. Research from Dr. Karen Bonuck showed that when you place 100 kids with ADHD and 100 kids with sleep-breathing disorders in a room together, even trained clinicians can’t reliably tell them apart.

The symptoms overlap that much—hyperactivity, poor focus, mood instability, impulsiveness. But the causes can be vastly different.

And that means that medicating a child for ADHD when the root cause is fragmented sleep could be harmful—especially to a developing brain.

Absolutely. Medication has its place, but it should never replace a proper sleep screening. And in children, even more so, because side effects from stimulants can be significant.

The good news? Many of these kids see massive improvement when their sleep and airway health is addressed.

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Practical Screening Tips for Families

Here’s what you can do, starting today:

• Download SnoreLab to track sleep audio patterns overnight. It’s free and provides a basic snapshot.
• Observe your child sleeping—are they mouth breathing, tossing, or grinding their teeth? Do they wake up groggy, irritable, or with dark circles?
• Consult a trained airway-focused dentist or find a Vivos provider who understands the oral-systemic connection.
• Have open conversations about stress and past trauma, especially if there’s a family history of divorce, addiction, or neglect.

And most importantly, treat sleep like the non-negotiable pillar of health that it is. Alongside diet, exercise, and emotional wellbeing, it’s foundational.

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Final Thoughts: Generational Healing Begins with Rest

We hope this episode has helped connect the dots for you. ACEs are widespread, but so is the opportunity to heal—and it often begins with sleep.

So many chronic conditions, from anxiety and obesity to jaw pain and heart disease, have roots in either toxic stress or poor sleep—or both.

But you can do something about it. It starts with awareness. Then with action. And always with love—for yourself and those who come after you.

Go home tonight. Look at your children. Ask about their day. Peek in while they sleep. Take notes. Ask questions. Be curious.

And if something feels off, trust your gut and seek help—from airway-aware dentists, sleep specialists, or therapists trained in trauma.

Let’s not pass down the burden. Let’s pass down the healing.

To learn more about breathing-focused treatments and holistic airway health, visit vivoslife.com. If you're near Orem, Utah, you can reach out to our team at NewVive Wellness for personalized airway evaluations.

Because sleep isn’t just rest—it’s recovery, resilience, and the first step toward generational healing.

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