Ecological Study of Sleep Disruption in PTSD
Laboratory-based sleep studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the presence and nature of objective sleep anomalies in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This pilot study aimed at assessing sleep in adult crime victims with PTSD by using in-home polysomnography. Compared to healthy archival subjects, PTSD subjects showed longer sleep latency, reduced total sleep time, and increased duration of nocturnal awakening. Quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) measures of delta and beta activity also differed in PTSD and healthy subjects. These preliminary findings suggest that ambulatory methods can capture objective signs of sleep disruption, and corroborate subjective complaints of disrupted sleep in PTSD
sleep ptsd in-home polysomnography