Sleep Difficulties Are Correlated with Emotional Problems following Loss and Residual Symptoms of Effective Prolonged Grief Disorder Treatment

Abstract

There is preliminary evidence that poor sleep quality is associated with emotional problems following loss, including symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and depression. We conducted two studies to improve existing knowledge about the role of sleep difficulties in recovery from loss. Study 1 that relied on self-reported data from a heterogeneous sample of 177 bereaved individuals replicated prior findings of a linkage between increased sleep difficulties and increased PGD severity. This study also suggested that sleep difficulties are more strongly associated with depression than with PGD. In Study 2, we examined whether prior evidence that sleep complaints are a residual symptom of PGD treatment could be replicated in a sample of 43 bereaved individuals who underwent cognitive behavioural therapy for PGD. Outcomes showed that, although sleep difficulties declined significantly during this cognitive behavioural therapy, after this therapy, over half of all patients still had sleep difficulties above the average sleep difficulties observed in the general Dutch population.