Abstract
Sleep disturbance is commonly encountered amongst intensive care patients and has significant psychophysiological effects, which protract recovery and increases mortality. Bio-physiological monitoring of intensive care patients reveal alterations in sleep architecture, with reduced sleep quality and continuity. The etiological causes of sleep disturbance are considered to be multifactorial, although environmental stressors namely, noise, light and clinical care interactions have been frequently cited in both subjective and objective studies. As a result, interventions are targeted towards modifiable factors to ameliorate their impact. This paper reviews normal sleep physiology and the impact that sleep disturbance has on patient psychophysiological recovery, and the contribution that the clinical environment has on intensive care patients’ sleep.
Highlights
Sleep is considered to be an essential biological function to maintain physiological and emotional wellbeing
Gabor et al [15] reported that healthy participants exposed to the intensive care unit (ICU) environment compared to ICU patients did not demonstrate the same level of sleep disturbance and reduction in slow wave sleep (SWS), suggesting that critical illness may be a contributing factor to the abnormalities seen in the sleep architecture of ICU patients
Despite decades of research identifying the impact of the clinical environment on ICU patients’ sleep, little has been accomplished in overcoming the factors that are purported to contribute to sleep disturbance
Summary
Sleep is considered to be an essential biological function to maintain physiological and emotional wellbeing. Gabor et al [15] reported that healthy participants exposed to the ICU environment compared to ICU patients did not demonstrate the same level of sleep disturbance and reduction in SWS, suggesting that critical illness may be a contributing factor to the abnormalities seen in the sleep architecture of ICU patients.
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