Disturbed Sleep among Adult Children of Alcoholics
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Authors
Spilman, Jacob
Issue Date
1985
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine 1) if there is significant sleep disturbance among adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) as compared to adult children of non-alcoholic parents (non-ACAs) and 2) whether there are differences in sleep disturbance within alcoholic and non-alcoholic groups of ACAs. Forty-nine participants (18 alcoholic ACAs, 15 non-alcoholic ACA, and 16 comparisons) were administered the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST), a Parental Alcoholism Screening Inventory, and a Sleep Assessment Inventory to compare patterns of sleep disturbance. ACAs had greater frequencies of prolonged sleep onset latencies (p = .03 and .05), complaints about their sleep onset latency (p = .04) and depth of sleep (p = .02), nocturnal wakenings (p = .05), reports of not feeling alert upon arising (p = .02), and participants meeting the criteria for sleep disturbance (p = .001) than non-ACAs. No significant differences were found between alcoholic and non-alcoholic ACAs, although the non-alcoholic ACA group exhibited somewhat more disturbance than the alcoholic ACA group. It was concluded that ACAs have more sleep disturbance than non-ACAs. This may allow clinicians to identify ACAs among their clients and offer ACAs alternate strategies for coping with sleep disturbance.