Sleep disturbance and intrusive memories after presenting to the emergency department following a traumatic motor vehicle accident: an exploratory analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive information about the sample (N = 71) for the intervention and control groups.

		Intervention (n = 37)				Control (n = 34)
		M	SD	n	%	M	SD	n	%
Baseline
Age (years)		38.9	16.1			40.5	16.8
Women				20	54.1%			17	50.0%
Ethnicity	White British			28	75.7%			28	82.4%
	Ethnic minority			9	24.3%			6	17.6%
Perceived life threat to self		5.19	3.20			5.56	3.23
Week 1 after index traumatic event
Total intrusive memories		8.73	11.55			10.70	7.29
Problems initiating sleep	Not at all			20	54.1%			14	41.2%
	A little bit			6	16.2%			4	11.8%
	Moderately			3	8.1%			5	14.7%
	Quite a bit			5	13.5%			7	20.6%
	Extremely			0	0.0%			3	8.8%
Problems maintaining sleep	Not at all			19	51.4%			12	35.3%
	A little bit			7	18.9%			7	20.6%
	Moderately			5	13.5%			2	5.9%
	Quite a bit			3	8.1%			10	29.4%
	Extremely			0	0.0%			2	5.9%
Dreams about event	Not at all			23	62.2%			22	64.7%
	A little bit			8	21.6%			2	5.9%
	Moderately			3	8.1%			3	8.8%
	Quite a bit			0	0.0%			4	11.8%
	Extremely			0	0.0%			2	5.9%
Month 1 after traumatic event
Problems initiating sleep	Not at all			19	51.4%			17	50.0%
	A little bit			7	18.9%			5	14.7%
	Moderately			2	5.4%			7	20.6%
	Quite a bit			1	2.7%			1	2.9%
	Extremely			1	2.7%			1	2.9%
Problems maintaining sleep	Not at all			19	51.4%			16	47.1%
	A little bit			7	18.9%			7	20.6%
	Moderately			3	8.1%			3	8.8%
	Quite a bit			1	2.7%			3	8.8%
	Extremely			1	2.7%			2	5.9%
Dreams about event	Not at all			25	67.6%			22	64.7%
	A little bit			5	13.5%			6	17.6%
	Moderately			0	0.0%			1	2.9%
	Quite a bit			0	0.0%			1	2.9%
	Extremely			1	2.7%			1	2.9%

Data before imputation are presented. M = Mean; SD = Standard deviation.

Table 2. Pooled Spearman’s rank correlations of early number of intrusive memories (total of first seven days post-trauma) with sleep disturbances reported at one week and one month.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1. Intrusive memories at one week	–	.34**	.37**	.26	.20	.30*	.20
2. Problems initiating sleep at one week		–	.78**	.49**	.43**	.33**	.42**
3. Problems maintaining sleep at one week			–	.57**	.47**	.50**	.53**
4. Dreams of traumatic event at one week				–	.39**	.39**	.59**
5. Problems initiating sleep at one month					–	.75**	.58**
6. Problems maintaining sleep at one month						–	.61**
7. Dreams of traumatic event at one month							–

*p < .05, **p < .01.

Table 3. Pooled estimates for the effects of one intervention session on day of the traumatic event on sleep disturbances at week 1 using ordinal regression.

	Problems initiating sleep		Problems maintaining sleep		Dreams of traumatic event
	B	95% CI	B	95% CI	B	95% CI
Model 1
Intervention^a	−0.70	−1.62, 0.22	−0.84	−1.79, 0.11	−0.25	−1.25, 0.75
Model 2
Intervention^a	−0.48	−1.44, 0.49	−0.63	−1.61, 0.35;	−0.05	−1.13, 1.02
Total intrusions	0.02	0.00, 0.04	0.03	0.01, 0.05	0.01	0.00, 0.03

^aReference is control group.