[Quality of sleep in patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit]

Trouble sleeping is common in the elderly population and is attributed to changes that aging brings in the sleep architecture and circadian rhythm. The prevalence of insomnia shows a marked increase with advancing age, in a proportion of 14 to 32% among those over 65 years. If we add these physiological changes of sleep with those found in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the problem worsens. The prevalence of these disorders in these units is from 22 - 61%. Sleep deprivation may contribute to worsening of the patients. The main objective is to describe the quality of sleep of patients admitted to the Coronary ICU of the Hospital Miguel Servet and the environmental factors that contribute to these disorders.

A total of 75 conscious and oriented patients in the Coronary ICU Hospital Miguel Servet were included. Data was collected between February 17 and April 30, 2011. The subjects were asked to state if they had slept well by means of a survey and to score the environmental factors that may have bothered them.

Most patients said they had slept well (66.7%). Noise was the environmental factor that bothered them most. In analyzing the different noises, patients identified hearing people talking as being the most annoying.

Changes must be implemented in the unit that would favor restful sleep.