Actigraphic measures of sleep on the wards after ICU discharge

The purpose of this study was to use an objective measure to evaluate sleep quality on the ward after ICU discharge in survivors of critical illness.

This was a prospective cohort study of 94 patients admitted to a multidisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU) between December 2013 and June 2017. Adult patients received ≥3 days of mechanical ventilation. Sleep quality was measured using multi-night sleep actigraphy. Baseline sleep quality (i.e. sleep prior to hospitalization) was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

A total of 65% of patients had poor sleep quality measured with the PSQI. The average (SD) sleep time and sleep efficiency was 6.03 h (3.70 h) and 44% (27%), respectively. An admission diagnosis of sepsis was associated with shorter total sleep time (TST; p = .03) and reduced sleep efficiency (SE; p = .04) as were severity of illness and duration of sedative exposure (p = .12 and 0.03; p = .09 and < 0.01; respectively for TST and SE). Weak correlations were seen between pro-inflammatory biomarkers and sleep quality.

This study highlights the important role that future interventions might have in patients at high-risk of sleep disorders after critical illness.