Prolonged and heavy use of alcohol is associated with persistent sleep disturbances. Objective and subjective measures of sleep quantity and quality were collected on 164 individuals undergoing detoxification. A high prevalence of sleep disturbance was found in this sample. Sleep quality improved by week 4 but continued to be altered, signaling a target area for recovery management. This study supports the high prevalence of sleep disturbance in individuals undergoing alcohol treatment. Health promotion strategies in an addiction recovery model should address quality-of-life enhancements for individuals and their families including optimizing sleep quality and duration through sustained recovery.

Sleep disturbances are common among alcohol-dependent individuals and can increase risk of relapse. The current study compares subjective and objective measures of sleep quality and duration and describes the prevalence of baseline sleep disturbances in an inpatient population of alcoholics undergoing their first week of detoxification. At baseline, the PSQI revealed that 79% of participants were above the cutoff score (≥5) for clinically meaningful sleep disturbances (mean = 12.57, SD = 4.38). Actigraphy results revealed that average sleep efficiency was 75.89%. Sleep efficiency scores were significantly correlated with self-reported sleep efficiency (P = 0.04, r = 0.47). Sleep duration measured by the actigraphy watches was not significantly correlated with self-reported sleep duration (P = 0.65, r = 0.10). Ongoing assessment of sleep disturbances may be a valuable tool for informing the development of customized sleep interventions in a similar inpatient alcohol treatment sample.

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