Andrea has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Society of Pediatric Psychology in support of her dissertation, “Inpatient Sleep Among Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer and Nonmalignant Hematologic Disorders: A Mixed Methods Study.”
The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of factors affecting inpatient sleep among AYA with cancer and nonmalignant hematologic disorders. Most extant research has focused on between-subject factors; however, there is significant variability in individual sleep needs, and aggregating data across subjects obscures valuable patterns at the individual level. In response to the recent call to explore within-subjects relationships between mood and inpatient sleep, this study will utilize fixed daily questionnaires to examine the effect of within-subject daily psychosocial fluctuations and environmental factors on that night’s total sleep time (TST), wake after sleep onset (WASO), and sleep quality. This study will also utilize a mixed methods approach to gain a more in-depth understanding of AYA’s lived experience of sleeping during hospitalizations and to generate case profiles using a comparative case study design. While an initial step in this line of research must focus on understanding factors affecting inpatient sleep, logical next steps will include the development of tailored sleep promotion interventions.