Interventions to improve patients' sleep in intensive care units and acute wards

What is it about?

Sleep is essential for the physical and psychological restoration of inpatients, and lack of sleep results in sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality, with potentially harmful consequences.The literature review showed that both ICU and acute ward settings affect patients' sleep and both use similar strategies to improve this. Nevertheless, noise and sleep disturbances remain the most critical sleep-inhibiting factors in both settings. The review recommended future research should focus on behavioural changes among health professionals to reduce noise and improve patients' sleep.

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Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We summarised similarities and differences of sleep-promoting interventions between Intensive care unit and acute ward setting. Our analysis produced two main themes: sleep-disturbing factors and sleep-promoting strategies. Sleep-disturbing factors included environmental factors (such as light and noise), illness-related factors (such as pain, anxiety and discomfort), clinical care and diagnostics. Sleep-promoting strategies included using pharmacological aids (medication) and non-pharmacological aids (reducing noise and disturbances, eye masks, earplugs and educational and behavioural changes).

Perspectives