This article discusses research findings in rats. Researchers sleep deprived some rats after they were exposed to a traumatic event. The results showed that those sleep deprived rats exhibited less behavior problems from the post-traumatic event, compared to rats who were allowed to sleep normally after the event. These results are similar to what I wrote about in a similar blogpost.

It makes sense that not allowing the rats to sleep right after the event may interfere with the rats' ability to encode memories of the event. More studies are needed in humans to see if the same effect occurs.