Subjective Sleep Disturbances in Sexual Assault Survivors : Associations With Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity

Copyright © 2023 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved..

Prior work implicates sleep disturbance in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the majority of this literature has focused on combat veteran men, and limited work has examined links between sleep disturbance and PTSD symptoms in sexual assault survivors. This is a notable gap in the literature, as sexual trauma is disproportionately likely to result in PTSD and is more common in women. We sought to examine the relations between subjective sleep disturbance, sexual assault severity, and PTSD symptoms in a sample of sexual assault survivors with PTSD (PTSD+), without PTSD (PTSD-), and healthy controls. The sample (N = 60) completed the Insomnia Severity Index and prospectively monitored their sleep for 1 week using the Consensus Sleep Diary. The sexual assault survivors also completed the Sexual Experiences Survey and PTSD Checklist-5. Results of group comparisons found that the PTSD+ group reported significantly higher insomnia symptoms, longer sleep onset latency, more nocturnal awakenings, and lower sleep quality compared to the healthy control group and higher insomnia symptoms compared to the PTSD- group. Results of regression analyses in the sexual assault survivors found that insomnia symptoms and number of nocturnal awakenings were significantly associated with higher PTSD symptoms, and sexual assault severity was significantly associated with higher insomnia symptoms, longer sleep onset latency, and lower sleep quality. These findings highlight specific features of sleep disturbance that are linked to trauma and PTSD symptom severity among sexual assault survivors.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:54

Enthalten in:

Behavior therapy - 54(2023), 5 vom: 19. Sept., Seite 863-875

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Cox, Rebecca C [VerfasserIn]
Garcia, Alexa N [VerfasserIn]
Jessup, Sarah C [VerfasserIn]
Woronko, Sarah E [VerfasserIn]
Rast, Catherine E [VerfasserIn]
Olatunji, Bunmi O [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Insomnia
Journal Article
PTSD
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Sexual assault
Sleep
Trauma

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 21.08.2023

Date Revised 23.08.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.beth.2023.03.005

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM360967272