Sleep Quality in Spouses of War Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress: A Qualitative Study

Sleep disorder is one of the common problems in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms over time.
This study aimed at evaluating sleep quality in women victims of post-traumatic stress disorder.
This qualitative study was carried out on 11 wives of war veterans with post-traumatic stress, during year 2015. A purposive sampling method and data collection using semi-structured interviews was used. After data collection and coding, content analysis (conventional content analysis) was performed. The consequences of sleep disorders were categorized in three groups: fear of going to sleep, nightmares, sleep interrupted and classified. Outcome of fear of sleep included (restlessness, insomnia, husband, wife scary behavior during sleep, fear of sleep, and onset of sleep), nightmares (remembering and bad replay of memories during sleep and jumping during sleep), interrupted sleep, and style (fear stress, anxiety sleep, and awakening frequently during sleep).
Discussion and Most of the pressure and stress of everyday life had significantly impaired sleep quality of veterans’ wives. Psychological and social support to improve the inspection requirements of quality of life could improve sleep hygiene and mental health of the victims’ wives.