Sleep, psychological trauma, and quality of life

Abstract

This chapter explores the interface among sleep patterns, psychological trauma, and quality of life. This chapter is written with the conceptual model, health-related quality of life (HRQL), as the backdrop for understanding the relationships between sleep, psychological trauma, and HRQL. It incorporates an understanding of the interrelationship of health, biological, social, and psychological markers as it relates to a person's HRQL. Under this framework, sleep acts as a biological variable that intersects with psychological trauma causing alterations in HRQL. In this chapter, we 1) review the current literature on the characteristics and uniqueness of sleep disturbances that are associated with a psychological trauma, 2) examine the relationship among: sleep, psychological trauma, and quality of life among select groups, and 3) focus on empirical gaps present in our knowledge related to trauma, sleep, and quality of life. © 2008 Humana Press, Totowa, NJ.