Text data in this studywere interpreted by amodified interpretive
process described below.16,20 The transcripts were downloaded in
NVIVO for analysis. The research team consisted of the principal investigator,
an expert in interpretive phenomenology, and a doctoral
student trained in qualitative research techniques. First, each member
of the research team examined each narrative text as a whole.
Next, each researcher wrote an interpretive summary of the text
that described the possible common meanings of the texts with excerpts
from the text to support the interpretation. These summaries
were the basis of the discussion of similarities and differences at
weeklymeetingswith a goal to reach consensus onemerging themes.
The analysis involved moving from thewhole text to parts of the text
in circular fashion known as the hermeneutic circle.When therewere
discrepancies, further clarification of interpretations was reached by
returning to the original text to ensure keeping close to the meaning
of the participants and not inserting pre-existing theories. Each previous
textwas reread again to compare themes across all texts to develop
the relational themes that linked meanings across texts in a
circular process. Then, all texts were reread to further uncover common
meanings and clarify relational themes. During the analysis
meetings the participants' background meanings and priorities
emerged in the interpretations of the meaning of good and bad
sleep. The researchers created matrixes of the relational themes
present in each participant's narrative, to gain an understanding of
the contextual similarities and differences between participants'
stories. This step in the analysis clarified how the participants' experiences
reflected their priorities in their life situations. Finally, the
principal investigator produced a final interpretive summary report,
which represented the current understanding of good and bad
sleep and used quotes that allowed for validation by the reader. The
multiple levels of interpretation served to expose conflicts and inconsistencies
in the analysis and served to eliminate unsubstantiated