Sleep disruption and domestic violence: exploring the interconnections between mothers and children Cathy Humphreys*, Pam Lowe† and Simon Williams‡ *Professor, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, †Doctor, Aston University, Birmingham, UK, and ‡Professor, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK ABSTRACT This paper argues that sleep disruption is both a strategy and an effect of violence and abuse which profoundly affects the lives of women and children. This paper traces the interconnections between the patterns of sleeping (not sleeping) for women and children living with and recovering from the effects of violence and abuse. It highlights the threat to the emotional and physical well-being of children and women and provides a non-pathologizing route into an exploration of one of the symptoms of trauma. It is based on a pilot study which interviewed 17 women, 14 of whom were mothers to 28 children. Mothers reported that many of their children experienced night- mares, bed-wetting, night panics and disrupted sleep patterns. Recov- ery of the ability to sleep was often slow and uneven with interactive effects between women and children slowing progress. Correspondence: Cathy Humphreys, Social Work at Melbourne, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia E-mail: cathy.humphreys@unimelb.edu.au Keywords: domestic violence, mother–child relationship, sleep, trauma Accepted for publication: May 2008 Published online: September 2008 INTRODUCTION Undoubtedly, to sleep soundly, a level of security and peace, is necessary within a household given the vulnerability of the sleeping body (Williams 2007). It is therefore unsurprising that sleep deprivation may be rife in households in which violence and abuse provide the backdrop to family life. The implications of this everyday experience have been marginalized, however, as the more pressing issues of crime, safety, protec- tion, homelessness and poverty have generally taken priority in the domestic violence research, policy and practice agenda. However, an exploration of (not) sleeping provides a different and revealing lens through which to explore the experiences of women and children living with and recovering from domestic violence. This paper draws on a pilot study to discuss the ways in which women understood the impact of domestic violence on their sleeping lives and those of their children. It takes as a particular focus their perception of their children’s sleep behaviours and the ways in which the ‘undoing’ of sleep is interconnected with their own experiences of abuse, trauma and recovery.The ongoing problems, and implications for practice associated with the recovery of sleep are discussed. LITERATURE REVIEW Any attention to sleep (or the lack of it) within any specific group needs to acknowledge the wider social dimensions of the issue (Williams 2005). How we sleep, when we sleep, where we sleep, what meanings we make of sleep and with whom we sleep are all important social, cultural and historically variable matters which are only now starting to be systemati- cally investigated within the social sciences and humanities (Steger & Brunt 2003; Williams 2005). This, in turn, suggests that sleep, far from being a biological ‘given’, displays a high degree of socio- cultural and historical plasticity (Kroll-Smith & Gunter 2005). A recent Demos report, for instance, found that 39% of British adults say they ‘do not get enough sleep’ which in turn varied accorded to factors such as age, occupation, employment status and family commitments/responsibilities (Leadbeater 2004). The key sleep disruptors identified by res- pondents in this study included children, worry at work and noise from streets, traffic, animals and neighbours. Other issues, of course, arise in relation to the gendered dimensions of sleep which manifest in different ways across the lifespan (Arber et al. 2007). doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00575.x 6 Child and Family Social Work 2009, 14, pp 6–14 © 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd