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Published on: October 2, 2019
Exploratory study of sleeping patterns in children admitted to hospital
Anthony R Herbert1, Jonathan de Lima, Dominic A Fitzgerald
1Paediatric Palliative Care Service, Division of Oncology, Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Insights
Over half of children admitted to hospital experience poor sleep, with pre-existing sleep issues being a key factor. Hospital environments frequently disrupt children's sleep.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric hospital medicine
- Sleep science
- Clinical research
Background:
- Sleep is crucial for healing and restoration, especially during illness.
- Hospitalization can significantly disrupt sleep patterns in children.
- Understanding sleep disturbance prevalence is vital for improving patient care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of self-reported sleep disturbance in hospitalized children.
- To identify factors contributing to sleep disturbance during hospitalization.
Main Methods:
- A sleep diary was completed by parents for children (1-18 years) during one hospital night.
- Children over 12 years completed diaries independently.
- Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.
Main Results:
- 52.3% of 107 surveyed children experienced poor sleep during their hospital stay.
- Poor sleep prior to admission was the strongest predictor of poor hospital sleep.
- Frequent awakenings were caused by nursing care, alarms, and pain, as well as toileting and spontaneous awakenings.
Conclusions:
- Hospitalized children exhibit a higher prevalence of poor sleep compared to community-dwelling healthy children.
- Hospital environmental factors and staff interventions frequently disrupt children's sleep.
- Educating staff on sleep hygiene for pediatric patients can mitigate negative impacts.
Aims:
Sleep is considered an important time of healing and restoration during illness. The primary aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-reported sleep disturbance in children admitted to a tertiary children's hospital with a variety of medical diagnoses.
Methods:
Parents of children admitted to the hospital, aged between 1 and 18 years, were asked to complete a sleep diary during one night of their child's hospital stay. Children older than 12 years were asked to complete a diary independently. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data.
Results:
Overall, 107 children were surveyed for one hospital inpatient night. The overall prevalence of poor sleep was 52.3%. The wide age range and variety of diagnosis limited further detailed analysis of specific causes of this problem. Poor sleep prior to admission was the strongest predictor of poor sleep in hospital suggesting that these children already had an underlying sleep problem. Unprompted awakenings were predominantly due to toileting (17.8%) or were spontaneous (17.8%). Factors specific to the hospital environment that woke children were nursing cares (25.2%), alarms (12.1%) and pain (12.1%).
Conclusions:
Children admitted to hospital have a higher prevalence of poor sleep compared with healthy children in the community. Children were woken frequently by both external noise and attention provided by hospital staff. Education of hospital staff about the importance of sleep for children and factors that affect children's sleep may reduce the negative impact of hospitalisation on children's sleep.
