Don't Plan on Getting Any Shut Eye in the ICU
A new study on how ICU patients in particular don't get good restorative sleep has been making waves in the main news circles. While patients may look like they are sleeping (or at least trying with all their sickly might), they are not, in fact, sleeping well or getting the restorative sleep they need to heal quickly. Surprisingly, this study is one of the first to examine the sleep patterns of surgical and trauma patients.
The culprit? Constant disruptions by nurses and other hospital personnel that put a damper on a good night's sleep. The study, which monitored the sleep patterns of 16 patients who had suffered traumatic injuries or had abdominal surgery, showed that they had fragmented and "superficial" sleep.
More than anything, this news (which isn't really news at all; anyone who has ever spent any time in a hospital--be it the ICU or a private room--can attest to the sleep-unfriendly environment) is a call to action. Restful sleep is an imperative in the rehabilitation of a body injured or sick. It's what allows our cells to repair and replenish themselves, and it's critical to a strong immune system. If I were in an ICU, I'd want to do everything possible to preserve the integrity of my immune system and bounce back to normal life ASAP. Wouldn't you?
The time has come for hospitals to consider how they are--or are not--helping to support restful sleep among patients, which in turn may affect recovery rates and length of stays. I'd love to see changes in hospital policies that reflect this study's underlying lessons. After all, we live in an age when health care costs continue to skyrocket. It could cost little, if anything, to prioritize sleep in a hospital setting. A few strategies to limit disruptions may actually affordhospitals the biggest bang for their proverbial buck.
And when a doctor prescribes bed rest (that is, sleep) for a quick and successful recovery, he can really mean it. You won't have to check out early (although there's something to be said for recovering in your own bed, but that's another story...).
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Technorati Tags: health, wellness, sleep, insomnia, hospital, ICU
4 Comments:
This is soooo true!! When I was in the ICU I slept horribly! First off I had numerous IVs in both arms and it was hard to keep them from tangling especially with the heart moniter leads and then there was the automatic bp thing on my arm... that was the worst!!! It went off every 30min and was loud and it felt like it was strangling my arm!! Every time i was just about to fall asleep it went off and woke me up.
Also because I had so many fluids going into me I had to pee all the time and of course since I was basically wired down to the bed I needed a nurse and it took forever!!
Then all of the windows that allowed the nurses to keep a close eye on my let in so much light! And even that wasn't enough they had to keep coming in to check on me... and god forbid I bend my arm a bit and set something off and I am threatned with an arm board!!
You are right the ICU is NOT the place to sleep and rest!!
I was in the ICU last month for 5 days, 4 of which I was unconscious. I spent the last 5 nights in the hospital sleeping in a chair, half way sittig up. It was not a good experience!! They had a terrible time waking me up, but I sat up in bed and said, "Help. Somebody needs to feed me if I'm ever going to get out of this place. The nurses' station was directly across the hall from me...noisy all the time. I had PIC lines in my left arm, so I couldn't get dressed; they had fluids running wide open and they had put in a Foley catheter. After a week, they removed the Foley, but apparently assumed my bladder wouls work normally automatically. Guess again, I had just begun taking Vesicare for OverActiveBladder (OAB). They were drowning me with fluids which barely paused on the way through me. I had urine floods of Biblical, i.e., Noah-like, proportions. I was one screwed up mess, but would they listen to me...of course not. My life was pure hell in the ICU and the other parts of the hospital as well. I hope never to experience anything that bad again@@
I couldn't agree more. I agree that it's astonishing that this blatantly obvious point is just coming home to hospitals...what in God's name took them so long?!
During my last hospital stay the sleep deprivation became worse than the problem I was in for. I'm not sure I understand how this incredibly basic issue can be utterly ignored by the health care profession - and, I hate to say it, by nurses in particular. Does it not occur to the third shift that the patients might need to sleep!? I can understand a certain level of soft noise; they have to do their jobs. But they seemed oblivious to the fact that it was the middle of the night, and acted like it was the middle of the day.
They called down the hallway to each other at the top of their lungs, crashed large equipment in and out of rooms, carried on loud conversations in the doorway to my room. One night they all gathered in the nearby break room and had a large, boiserous birthday party, complete with singing the song..!?
My father was a doctor, and said that the third shift, since it isolates people from the regular-hour world, becomes a society of its own. I can understand that. But you are working in a HOSPITAL. We can't help the hours you work; and we are sick, frightened, exhausted, and feeling miserable. Add to that that the wee hours are the worst, most frightening and most anxiety-producing hours for a sick person to be lying awake - and then don't be surprised if you have cranky, unhappy patients to deal with. Surely a lot of nurses have babies or small children - would they let anyone make this much noise if their kids were sleeping?
This cuts across all lines. My father had always been a major advocate for nurses and their causes during his career; he insisted that all doctors treat them with respect, and taught us that as well. Ironically, his last hospitalization was awful; understaffed floors, lack of care, etc. The thing he complained about the most? He couldn't get any sleep.
He was exhausted. He was an 84-yr-old man, fragile and ill - and they took his BP every night at 2 AM. (They sent him for x-rays at 3 AM.) He couldn't believe the noise level in the hallways. At the end, he only wanted to come home and sleep in his own house. Thankfully, we could do that for him; and at least we know that he was sleeping peacefully at the very end. But he had to leave the hospital to fulfill that most basic of needs.
I would hope that compassion would come into play here, even if common sense doesn't. Let's hope this is just the beginning of a movement in hospitals - toward a quiet night of rest for their helpless populations.
though it may be true there are reasons behind it.I have spent that last 4 years in and out of hospitals and none of them were very pleasent but people need to remember all of these devices are there for a reason I come to respect the nurses they don't enjoy waking you up but have to do whats on the doctors orders, and I've been thankful for them waking me for my vitals because there have been times that have saved my life so I think people need to keep in mind in situations like these be blessed that you are being awakend for what ever reason then that you are receiving proper care.
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