Insomnia and Complicated Grief Symptoms in Bereaved College Students

In this study, we extended previous research by concentrating on sleep- and grief-related symptoms in a cohort of bereaved college students, in view of the potential for each of these problems to exacerbate the other. A sample of 815 college students completed the Inventory of Complicated Grief (H. G. Prigerson & S. C. Jacobs, 2001), along with an assessment of diagnostic criteria for insomnia and associated sleep behaviors. As predicted, the rate of insomnia was significantly higher (22%) in the bereaved sample than in a nonbereaved comparison group (17%), a difference that was particularly pronounced in terms of middle insomnia. Also as hypothesized, bereaved insomniacs reported higher complicated grief scores than bereaved noninsomniacs, and several specific sleep variables (including sleep-onset insomnia related to nighttime rumination about the loss and sleep-maintenance insomnia associated with dreaming of the deceased) were significantly related to complicated grief symptomatology.